The New Frontier
by Side1ways
Summary: Kendall Knight has recently been promoted, and is looking forward to his first posting as Commander on a Starship. When the posting begins however, chaos ensues and the Commander is thrown into a position he is unprepared to face. Will he be able to adapt to the situation with the help of his fellow senior officers, and save the crew from their current predicament?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi Guys and welcome to something that I have spent the last twenty four hours working on! So, for a little while, I've debated doing a story like this so I just decided fuck it, and went for it. Like I said, I literally started writing this about 24 hours ago, so it's not the best thing I have ever produced, but I really enjoyed writing it and it definitely has gotten me ready to continue writing Class Vs Character, which I need to do!**

 **Anywho, it is a one shot, but I've left it in a place so if I wanted to continue it, I can** **so** **let me know what you think and I will see you all tomorrow for chapter 4 of Love, James!**

* * *

"Commanders Log Stardate 62540.8675. Huh, it's still weird to refer to myself as a Commander, especially this soon into my career, and only at the age of 28. What can I say, I guess the admiralty sees greatness in me…ugh computer delete last sentence" Kendall began, as he pulled himself out of bed, making sure to grab his tablet as he did so. The blonde moved from his bedroom over to the kitchen as he began the next part of the entry.

"Anyway, I've been looking forward to today for quite a while, so I decided to document it so in the years to come, I can remember what today was like. Today I'm being assigned my first first officer posting, and what is adding to my excitement is the fact that I know nothing about where I am going to be posted. I tried to get a hint or two off of my old captain, Captain Swanage, but she didn't seem to let up, only boasting a huge smile instead, so without sounding too big headed, I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be good." He paused again, as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He blew on the cup, hoping to cool it down in some way as he looked around his apartment for what would be one of the final times for a while.

He was unsure of how long his new posting would be, so he wanted to make the most of the little time he had left. The apartment was only small, containing one bedroom, a bathroom and a conjoined kitchen-lounge area, but the few years Kendall had lived there, it had truly become his home. Family photos were hung on the walls, showing him with his mother and sister from a young age, as they ran through the fields in his family home in Wichita, all the way up to a last week when he got his promotion at the United Earth Federation headquarters here in London, with the three of them sporting huge smiles. His father truly would be proud. Taking a sip of his coffee as he stared at one of the photos, he continued.

"Whatever the case, it's safe to say that I am super excited about his opportunity and I am definitely going to make the most of it, learning everything I can about being in command, especially since I aim to be the youngest captain in the UEF. I just hope that my Commanding Officer is nice enough to be an actual mentor to me, otherwise I'm going to have to try and do this alone." He sighed, taking another sip of his coffee, as he considered if he had anything else to say. When he realised that he was pretty much done for the moment, he added "computer, end log" causing a small beep to sound, signalling that it had done so, and that he was free to say what he really wanted. "I just hope I don't fuck this up" he breathed out, finishing the mug of coffee in his hand.

Quickly washing up the mug, the blond made his way into the bathroom, and got himself ready for the day. He showered, making sure to give himself a proper clean and then shaved, getting rid of the small bits of stubble that had gathered around his jaw. The blond really wanted to make the best first impression that he could, knowing that that could make or break his next posting. Once he was finished, he slid on the UEF's uniform, making sure to add his three gold commander pips onto his colour. The uniform wasn't really anything spectacular, but Kendall grown to love it.

The uniform consisted of a black jacket, which from the neck down to the bottom of the shoulders was a different colour depending on discipline. Kendall's was red, which signified either command or a tactical position. There was also gold, which was used for engineering or operations, and a teal for science or medical professions. The UEF used it as a quick way to identify people. On the right hand side of the jacket, just beneath the coloured area was their insignia badge which allowed them to communicate with each other. The UEF's insignia followed the design of the UN's logo, which was the UEF's predecessor. Along with the jacket were black formal trousers, and a pair of black combat-esque boot to complete the outfit. Some officers including Kendall, tended to wear a grey tank top under their jacket, but that was optional.

With the uniform on, and everything set, Kendall left him apartment, taking one final look before he closed the door. While he was excited about this opportunity, a small part of him hoped it wouldn't be too long until he saw his home again.

* * *

As Kendall made his way through the bustling streets of London, the blond felt a sense of anxiety loom over him and while he knew that was completely natural in his position, it didn't stop him from becoming subject to it. His prevailing thought was that this post could make or break his future career and the blond started to fret over the simplest of things, such what he if couldn't find his way to the bridge of the new ship, or what if he tripped as he made his way over to his new CO. Knowing the best way to try and calm his nerves, he pulled his earphones from his pocket, allowing a private communicator call. The call was picked up almost immediately, and he already relaxed at the voice he heard.

"Kendall, honey, big day today" his mum said, and Kendall knew that he had woken her up by the sound of her voice.

"I know. I'm sorry to call you so early, I'm just a little nervous" the blond replied, causing him mum to chuckle.

"Don't worry about it honey, I'd rather you ring and calm down than fret about it" she replied, and Kendall knew it was true. Despite the fact that it was only 3:00am in Wichita, Kendall knew that she was being sincere. "Just remember that whatever happens, Katie and I are super proud of you. You've worked really hard for this position, and you're prepared for whatever it throws at you. And if something does go wrong, then learn from it Kendall, use this experience to help better yourself before it's your time to take command." She continued, Kendall nodding along to everything she said. He had told himself this but listening to his mother say it seemed to make it more real. "And trust in your CO, but don't be afraid to offer suggestions if you think something else may work better. Some captains like that you challenge them. I know your father always did. He would be so proud of you Kendall, and I know that he is looking out for you" His mother finished as a small smile formed on Kendall's face.

"Thanks mum, that really helped" he replied, feeling some of the tension releasing from his shoulders.

"No problems honey and remember to give me a call once in a while. You're never too old to talk to your mum, even if it's for five minutes" she stated, causing him to chuckle.

"Of course, I will mum. I've just got to the HQ, so I'll have to go. Wish me luck"

"You don't need it Kendall, you've got your skill to help you. I'll chat to you soon, love you"

"Love you" Kendall replied, the call cancelling as soon as he finished. The blond pulled his earbuds out, as he stared up at the UEF HQ building.

The building seemed to loom over him, it's shadow casting out for miles as if to show its importance to the world. The UEF's logo stood proud on the grass in front of it, and Kendall felt some sense of relief as he looked upon it. This was what he had worked for, and that sense of pride finally dawned upon him.

With a smile on his face, the blond made his through the doors and towards his future career.

* * *

When he finally arrived at the admiralty office, Kendall was more excited than nervous at this point and he was ready for his assignment. The assistant had signed him in, telling him that he would be waiting no more than five minutes, and the blond nodded before he took his seat, looking upon some of the model star ships that sat upon the wall, many he recognised.

There was the U.S.S Aragon, famed for making first contact with the Broctor, the first civilisation Human met in space. There was the U.S.S Sentinel, which was the first colony ship to leave the solar system, settling on a planet in Alpha Centauri which was now a thriving world, providing the UEF with a numerous amount of resources. He also took notice of the linage of the U.S.S Javelin, from it's first iteration which pioneered human space travel in 2096 to it's most modern reincarnation, almost three hundred years later. A sense of wonder grew in Kendall, as he wondered if his new ship would ever grace these walls, if his new assignment would every do anything worthy enough to be taught in schools. He didn't get long to ponder the thought however, as Admiral Maddison emerged from his office with a smile on his face as he greeted the young male.

"Commander Knight, it's so nice to see you again" Maddison said, as he and Kendall locked hands in a handshake.

"Admiral Maddison, Sir" Kendall replied, nodding slightly as he did so. With niceties out of the way, the admiral was quick to lead the two of them into his office, one that overlooked the Thames as well as the old parliamentary building and of course, Big Ben. Kendall marvelled at the view as he sat down. It wasn't that he'd never seen the area before but to see if from so high up allowed him to see it in a new light.

"So, I suppose you want to find out what your new posting will be" Maddison joked as he gained Kendall attention once more.

"I am slightly curious sir" Kendall joked back, gracing the admiral with one of his charming smiles as he chuckled. In response to Kendall's reply, the admiral spun the holographic screen around on his desk, finally allowing the blond the privilege of his new assignment.

"The U.S.S Diamond." The Admiral began, as Kendall looked over the specifications of the new ship. "It's a light cruiser and the newest in our fleet of ships. 20 decks, with a crew of 500 personnel, 10 Veteron Beam Arrays and 3 torpedo banks. But probably the biggest difference between this and our other ships is the new flash drive prototype" he continued, as Kendall tapped on the panel showing him the information. "I don't know the specifics myself, but I know that it's probably the most efficient drive have in the fleet, and the ship can sustain a flash of 9.5 which is about two hundred percent faster than any other ship we have. It's cutting edge technology and we want you to help test it. I know it's quite a big responsibility Commander, but we all believe you can do it" he finished, as Kendall finally looked back up at him, completely speechless. The blond was certainly not expecting this. Testing one of the fleets newest ships? That was definitely a privilege and one he wasn't going to let go to waste.

"Of course sir" was all Kendall could think to say at that moment as he allowed the information to dawn on him. "It's…I'm grateful for the opportunity you've given me. Thank you so much" he continued, finally finding his footing when he spoke. "I won't let you down"

"That's the spirit" the admiral replied, flashing him a small as he continued to speak. "The Captain of the Diamond, George Hawk, will fill you in on the details of your current mission and you are to report to him as soon as you are on board. From what I've been told, you'll be one of the last crew members to arrive, so I'd expect a quick departure. There is a shuttle waiting for you at Waterloo Spaceport." Once finished, the admiral stood up causing Kendall to follow suit, giving him another handshake. "And now that all of the official business is done, I'd just like to say that I'm super proud of you son" he began, patting Kendall on the back as he did so. "Your father would be proud of you, Kendall. He spoke highly of you when we served together on the Poseidon together, and you were only ten at the time. 'He's gonna go far' he would always say" Maddison finished with a chuckle, despite how deep the conversation had gotten.

"Thank you, Richard" Kendall replied with a smile, showing his true appreciation to Maddison. The admiral had been a massive help to Kendall throughout his career, providing advice if Kendall needed it, but he never once interfered, letting Kendall achieve every rank he'd gotten by hard work instead of a good word. Knowing it was time to begin his new posting, Kendall made his way out of the office, Admiral Maddison alongside him and when a goodbye and good luck was exchanged between the two of them, Kendall straightened his jacket before making his way out of the UEF headquarters and towards the spaceport where his shuttle was waiting.

A whole new sense of pride filled Kendall as he walked through the streets of London, this time due to the knowledge that he had made such an impression on the admiralty that they had decided to grant him such a special position. There must have been hundreds of commanders to choose from, and Kendall knew that almost all of them would be far more experienced than he was, and yet he was picked for this assignment over them due to nothing more than his skill and commitment, and that thought truly made the blond smile. While walking, Kendall began to commit the city of London to memory. Not only did it shorten the journey for him, but it also allowed to have a sense of home when he boarded the ship. With the Diamond being a new prototype, Kendall could only assume that would mean that the ship would very rarely return to Earth as the captain as well as the admiralty would want to find the extent of the ship's limits when it came to the length of time between maintenance and resupplying at a space dock. Sure, Kendall could take his permitted shore leave, but he knew that if he took it within the first six months or so, it may reflect badly on him.

As Kendall looked around the area surrounding the spaceport, a flurry of memories surfaced, causing the blond to smile. He remembered the first time he was stood at the spaceport as a Cadet, waiting for his training cruise to begin. Him and his friends were all huddled around, taking about the positions they had been assigned, the specifications of the ship they were assigned to as well as wondering what their first mission would entail. Would they answer a distress call? Would they initiate first contact with a new species?

It turns out that they actually just took a trip around the solar system in order to test their abilities. The captain had made them fly into the asteroid belt and had them test their weapons systems out as well as the shields before turning them back towards Earth. It was nothing as spectacular as they had imagined, but it didn't stop the buzz he gained.

As he walked through the departures area within the spaceport, he could see a small group of cadets who were probably in the same position as he was then. When a few of them looked over at him, he flashed them a small smile causing them to nod back in respect, before turning back to their group and continuing their conversations. He took note of the area around him once again, remembering what he could about the area as he approached the sign in terminal. With a quick fingerprint scan, the computer told him where to head and he followed the instructions out to his awaiting shuttle.

"Commander Knight Sir" the pilot said, as Kendall boarded the shuttle, making sure to sit at one of the main consoles at the helm. Not only did it provide him with a view that would be perfect to see his new ship, but it would also allow him to take control in case anything happened. Kendall could count that as one of his small little faults. He liked to have some sort of control in every situation but serving on a starship didn't provide him with much chance to have that when he had to work under a chain of command. That what made moments like this so special.

With the airlock sealed and the engines primed, the pilot began their ascent out of the Earth's atmosphere, Kendall taking one final look at the beautiful blue sphere as he flew into the darkness of space. In some way, Kendall always found this part of his launch poet. He was leaving a place of warmth and vibrancy to a cold, colourless vacuum, which held so many opportunities as well as an endless amount of warmth and vibrancy in the shape of other planets, or even nebulas and other strange phenomena that existed. It was truly the epitome of never judging a book by it's colour.

With one final jolt, the shuttle had successfully left the atmosphere and Kendall took notice of the co-ordinates that were inputted into the computer. "We're not heading to Earth Space Dock?" he asked, raising his eyebrow at the pilot, as the shuttle began to fly in the opposite direction.

"Not today Commander. With the ship being a prototype, command decided to have it orbit Venus instead. That way, they can track what ships are approaching." The pilot replied, the shuttle jumping into flash as their brief journey began. This was a strange procedure to follow but he could only conclude that meant that this prototype was something the admiralty wanted to keep under wraps, limiting the number of people who knew about it.

As the shuttle travelled through flash, curiosity got the better of Kendall as he began to wonder what the ship would actually look like in space. Sure, he saw a small image of it when looking over the specification, but Kendall knew that never actually compared to the real thing and what it looked like as the sunlight bounced off it hull, or how the glow of the engines illuminated small parts of the hull. He wondered whether the ship would be bulky like most cruiser that currently served in the fleet, or whether it followed a new, sleeker design, one that tried to make it look more aggressive.

So when the shuttle finally left flash and the ship was finally revealed, the blond couldn't help but awe at it.

* * *

The position the shuttle left flash from was perfect, with the profile of the ship being shown in it's entirely. Kendall could tell that the ship was split into two primary sections.

At the front of the ship was a saucer, one that Kendall assumed would contain probably the first 7 decks. From the back of the saucer was what Kendall dubbed 'The neck' of the ship. It was a moderately sized, probably contained the remaining 3 decks that the saucer lacked. Kendall knew that it's main purpose however was to provide a stylish way to connect the saucer to the aft section of the ship, which was easier the largest containing the last 10 decks that the ship had to offer, completing it's 20 deck design.

The neck attached to the front of this section, which was cylindrical in shape and while it was shorter than the saucer of the ship, it seemed to perfectly balance it. Kendall also took note of how the latter third of the ship seemed to curve, with the bottom half curving upwards to meet with the top, adding yet another stylish concept to the ship. As the shuttle began its journey towards the Diamond, the pilot must have noticed Kendall's gaze, as he took a detour around the ship rather than straight to the shuttle bay.

As they approached, Kendall noticed how the Flash nacelles were positioned, with the pylons coming straight out of the latter half of the aft section, where the curve was almost completed. Once the pylons were out by about the radius of the saucer, they jutted up at a ninety degree angle until they sat level with the height of the saucer, with the nacelles positioned on top of them. The nacelles themselves were certainly of a different design to anything Kendall had ever seen before, and he put that down to the new flash drive installed.

The shuttle flew over the saucer of the ship, where Kendall was able to clearly read 'U.S.S Diamond' in a black panelling that was different from the rest of the ship's grey hull plating, allowing it to stand out. Beneath the name was written 'SX-2-J' which designated the vessel as a 'Starship Experiment' but what took Kendall's interest was the '2-J' part of the designation. That meant that this ship was following a line of 10 other experimental vessels with the designation of 'SX-2' and it made Kendall wonder how long this lineage had existed for.

As the shuttle made its way towards the back of the ship, Kendall couldn't help but stare at it's design. It was truly like nothing he had ever seen before, and this made him giddy to get aboard. He noticed how the deflector was situated at the front of the aft section of this ship, and it was considerable in size, which Kendall took as an indication as it's shield strength. Then again, a lot of the unusual design features such as the nacelle and deflector position could be due to this new flash drive so Kendall was sceptical to assume anything.

As the shuttle finally flew to the rear of the ship, the shuttle bay was revealed, positioned where the bottom of the aft section finally joined with the top, completing the curve. As the shuttle flew in and landed, a whole new sense of adventure swelled in his heart and he was suddenly ready for whatever this promotion threw at him.

"Looks like we're the last ones on board. You best head to the bridge straight away. I can imagine Captain Hawk is desperate to try his new ship out." The pilot said as he unlocked the airlock allowing Kendall to leave. With a brief nod and thank you, Kendall finally set foot onto the new ship, that excitement building even more. As the blond made his way through the corridors, he couldn't help but notice the amount of people around, with some working on some conduits in the walls, while others were just stood chatting in the corridors. His journey to the bridge took him past the engineering section of the ship, and he took this opportunity to take a quick glance in.

There must have been about 25 people in that room alone, each of them performing some sort of task. At the centre of it all stood the new flash drive, standing three floors tall and sporting a magnificent orange glow from it's core, which seemed to swim around in it's containment. Kendall put that down to the reaction between matter and anti-matter which provided the ship with it's energy. When he started to hear shouting coming from the room, the blond was quick to make haste towards a sonic lift that he could take to the bridge.

* * *

The lift ride up was a solitary one, and one that Kendall spend wondering how to introduce himself to the captain. As Kendall had thought before, this moment would make or break his time serving aboard this vessel so he knew it needed to be good. When the lift finally stopped, and the doors opened, Kendall didn't have time to put any of his plans into action however as he was enamoured by the look of the new bridge.

The blond noticed how he emerged from the back of the bridge and was instantly awestruck by the size of the room. To his left, the wall was lined with all sorts of panels, the central one being the Master Systems Display for the ship. At this far left sat the operations console, the position in which the inhabitant had control over the ships internal systems, sensor data and communications. This position was currently being manned by an Asian female, who was wearing a gold uniform, with 2 gold pips on, signalling her rank to Lieutenant.

To his right sat the tactical position, which provided control over the ships weapons, shields and security. The station also provided an array of scans that would focus on their target rather than the surrounding area that the operations console provided. Tactical was currently being manned by a Latino male, who was sporting the same pips as the female in operations.

In the middle of the two posts, positioned slightly closer to the front of the bridge was the command area, where the Captain was currently seated in the right hand seat. To his left was another seat which Kendall presumed would be for him, and in the middle of both seats seemed to be a small console, allowing the two of them a readout of any current information being collected.

In front of the command area sat the flight controller or Conn station, which was essentially the helm of the ship. That console controlled the direction in which the ship would be travelling, as well as whether the ship would be travelling at sub-light or faster than light speeds. It also provided a readout of some of the engineering information, allowing them some control over ships systems. The station was currently being manned by a brown haired female, who was only sporting one gold pip, at the rank of ensign.

To the left of that station, next to a door which led to the briefing room, was the science station, which allowed the officer seated there to collect and analyse data on the surrounding space, and this was currently being manned by a blonde haired ensign female. Directly opposite that on the right hand side of the Conn station, next to the door to the captain's ready room, sat the engineering station, which allowed the chief engineer to control engineering from the bridge, as well as showing read out for the structural integrity of the ship and the condition of the flash drive. That station was currently unmanned, showing the the chief engineer was down in main Engineering instead. The final thing Kendall notice was the large view screen that sat against the front wall of the bridge. The screen was probably the largest Kendall had even seen and was currently showing Venus as the ship sat in it's orbit.

"Commander on Bridge!" the Latino male next to him shouted, as Kendall finally stepped onto the bridge. Everyone was quick to glance his way before glancing back towards their work stations, but the signal was mainly for the Captain, who was currently staring at Kendall with a smile on his face.

"Captain Hawk" Kendall said as he made his way down to the captain, greeting him with a hand shake, thinking it was the best way to approach this.

"Commander Knight" he replied, gesturing to the seat beside him. When the two of them sat down, Hawk began issuing orders.

"Bridge to Engineering, chief is the core ready?"

"As ready as she'll ever be sir" The chief engineering replied, and Kendall could see Hawk nod.

"Helm set a course for 178-mark-381, flash 9" he said, causing the brunette to nod as she input the coordinate, and within a few second, the ship was moving out of Venus' orbit and towards the darkness of space. Kendall wished the solar system a mental goodbye before the ship jumped to flash, the view screen showing the flash debris as the ship travelled faster than light. With everyone on the bridge completing their own scans and duties, Hawk turned to Kendall as he loaded up some information on the small console.

"I guess you want to know what our mission is"

"That would be helpful sir" Kendall replied, directing his attention to the information present.

"The UEF wants us to go into Broctor space" Hawk began, causing Kendall to glance up at him with his eyebrow raised. "There was a small scout vessel that we sent out and it gained some significant information which would help us establish a non-aggression pact with them. Tensions are running high, and there has been a few border skirmishes lately, so the UEF wants to try and put that to an end" he continued causing Kendall to nod.

"So why is a prototype ship being used?" Kendall asked, as he continued to review the information in front of him.

"We are unaware of the ship's actual whereabouts in Broctor space. The flash drive in this ship doesn't leave the same trail as our other ships, so if we run into any problems, we can jump to flash and they won't be able to follow. That way, we can search the area without having to worry too much about the Broctor. Plus, she's had the mark ten veteron beams installed, so we have the most up to date technology and weaponry. But more information is available on the console there" he replied, nodding towards the console, which Kendall continued to review.

* * *

About an hour into the journey, the ship dropped out of flash causing Captain Hawk to stand up from his seat. "Ensign, why have we stopped?" he asked the brunette sat at the helm.

"I'm detecting an unknown phenomenon in front of us" she replied, causing the Asian girl from Ops to speak up.

"Confirmed. It's some sort of nebula, but the ship can't seem to identity any of the components." She replied, as the captain turned to her.

"What do you mean we can't identify them?" he asked, causing her to shrug.

"That's it, Sir. The computer was no record of the particles that are appearing" she replied, causing Hawk to rub his forehead.

"We need that information. And as much as I want to study this nebula, we really don't have the time. Do we know how large it is?"

"It extends for at least a 10 Au in each direction"

"That's 150 million kilometres so we can't go around it. That means we have to go through it" he mumbled, as he continued to rub his forehead before turning back to the girl at Conn. "Ensign, how long would it take for us to get through the nebula at flash 9?"

"About 5 minutes sir" she replied, causing him to nod. Kendall felt like this was the right time to speak up.

"Sir, might I add that we don't know what affect these unknown particles will have on our ship" Kendall added, causing Hawk to turn his attention back to him.

"I know Commander, but we don't have the time to waste going around it"

"Then may I suggest raising the shield. They may help to combat some of the effects" Kendall replied, causing Hawk to smile at him.

"Nice thinking commander" he responded, before turning his attention to the tactical officer. "Lieutenant raise shields" he commanded before turning back to the girl at Conn. "Ensign ahead flash 9" he continued, causing her to turn back to her console as she inputted the command. With the ship moving again, Hawk made his way back over to his seat, but as soon as he sat down, things started to go wrong.

It started with the lights flashing intermediately as well as a numerous amount of consoles beginning to fail on the bridge. "Captain, I've lost communications" Ops reported before tactical spoke up as well.

"Weapons control is also down" he replied, before the view screen at the front of the ship dropped out as well.

"We've lost visual, but I can confirm that the ship was dropped from flash. We're sat right in the middle of the nebula" the girl from Conn spoke, and as soon as she finished, the lighting dropped completely only to be replaced with a dark red glow, as a siren sounded.

"Red Alert. Flash Breach Imminent" the computer repeated over and over, causing Hawk to shoot up from his seat.

"Sir, I can't get any information from Engineering, and with communications being down, he can't hail them" the brunette girl spoke, causing Kendall to then shoot up from his seat.

"I'll get down to engineering and see if I can get this sorted" he said as he passed behind the command area and towards the lift. As soon as he was by the door however, the bridge witnessed the view screen spark to life, and everyone's attention was drawn to it.

What the crew didn't expect to witness was a blinding flash, one that when witness caused everyone on the bridge to pass out, the last thing Kendall remembering was the bridge tilting at a ninety degree angle as he fell.

* * *

When Kendall woke up, he was faced with a white light that was shining into his eyes and his initial thought was that this was he ascent to heaven. However, the bright light was quickly removed from his eyes, and he was instead greeted with a dimly light room with a red tint, as well as the operations officer straddling him.

"Commander" she breathed out a sigh, as she helped Kendall sit up and lean against the door to the lift. From there he witnessed the one sight he'd hoped he'd never have to deal with in his career.

The bridge was in ruin, with steel beams dangling from the ceiling, foggy gas being expelled from the walls and the flashing of a few consoles as they tried to spark back to life. The captain was currently laid out of the floor by his seat, with the Conn officer on top of him, performing chest compressions.

"What happened?" Kendall managed to mumble as the girl next to him loaded up the medical scanner and proceeded to scan around Kendall's head.

"We're unsure Sir. It seems everyone on the bridge passed out when that flash happened. All we know is that the ship didn't explode, so engineering must have found a way to stop the core overload" she replied, before looking down at her scanner. "No signs of internal injuries. I think you just got away with a bumped head" she replied, as held her arm out and helped Kendall to his feet.

"Thanks Lieutenant…" Kendall began, not sure of her name.

"Stone Sir, Lucy stone" she replied, giving him a small smile as he continued.

"Right, I need you to try and get communications back up, can you do that for me?" he asked, causing him to nod.

"I can try sir" she replied, before moving back over to her station. Much like the others, the console seemed to be flashing but there was no physical damage to the work station, so Kendall hoped she could get it to work. The blond was quick to move over to the Conn officer, in an attempt to help her with the captain.

"What happened?" he asked her as he knelt down beside her.

"What from I can tell, he must have been hit from that beam as it fell" she replied, pointing to the steel girder that was hanging between the command centre and the Conn console.

"Any luck?" he asked, causing her to shake her head.

"He's unresponsive. The scanner says that there is no brain activity" she replied, before turning to him. "He's dead sir" she concluded, a stray tear rolling down her face.

"I'm sure you did what you could Ensign, but unfortunately there is no time to mourn now" he replied, rubbing her back slightly.

"That means that command has fallen to you" she continued, as the two of them pulled themselves off of the ground and it was that sentence that made everything dawn on Kendall, like a ton of bricks falling. She was right. He was now in command of the Diamond, a ship he knew very little about with a crew he hadn't had the chance to meet. Kendall tried to fight the panic as it settled in, but he was only semi-successful as he tried to take control.

"Lieutenant Stone, any luck on contacting engineering?" he asked, turning to her only to see the puzzled look on her face.

"Um, you might want to see this sir" she responded, completely ignoring Kendall's question, but he knew that she must have found something bigger for her to ignore a direct command. As he made his way over to the operations console, he was able to take a brief glance around the bridge. The brunette who was working the Conn had moved back to her station, and with the help of the blonde from science, it seemed the two of them were working to try and fix the console. The Latino male at tactical was also wake, and Kendall could see that he was reviewing the status of the shields and the weapons but he was only having mild success.

As he reached the console, the blond glanced down at the screen, and couldn't help the gasp that left his mouth as he did so. "This can't be right" he said, tapping on the screen as he began to run his own scan of the surrounding are, something that Lucy had managed to get back up.

"Sir, I've run the scan about five times. It's true, we're…"

"120,000 light years away from home" Kendall interrupted his as he stared down at the console. "Stone, I need communications up now. I need to speak to engineering" he commanded, causing her to nod. "While you do that, I'll run a scan for the damage of the ship" he continued, as he made his way over to the tactical station first. "Any luck with our defence systems, Lieutenant…"

"Garcia, Carlos Garcia" the Latino male said, as he turned around. "And from what I can tell, our deflector was damaged so I can't get the shields up. We have weapons, but they're at two percent, so they're practically useless" he replied, causing Kendall to begin to rub his forehead in panic.

"Keep trying, we'll need at least ten percent for them to be useful" he stated, causing Carlos to nod at the command before turning back to work on the console behind him.

When Kendall finally reached the engineering station, he was quick to run a scan of the ship. Most of it he expected like communications and tactical were down, but the new information posed a great threat showing that decks 12 through 16 had been breached on the left side and from a quick scan, he knew that was where the transfer cable from the flash drive to the nacelles ran. An emergency force field was in place, and despite the significant damage caused, he knew that was better than the entire drive breaching completely.

"Yes!" Lucy shouted from the other side of the bridge and when Kendall looked over to Lucy, he saw she had a massive smile on her face. "Communications are back up sir!" she continued, causing Kendall to nod as he pressed against his badge.

"Bridge to Engineering, please respond" he said, as he awaited a reply. For a moment, he received nothing but static before a voice finally spoke up.

"Chief Engineer Diamond here sir" the voice spoke, and Kendall breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Chief, what's the status down there."

"Not good sir, the flash drive is completely offline, so the entire ship is running off of emergency power. Something in that nebula caused the core to go into overdrive"

"That would explain why we're 120,000 light years away" Kendall said, without thinking about it.

"Say again sir?" the Chief asked causing Kendall to stutter slightly.

"I'll explain later. Right now, I need you to run a full damage report of the ship. I've run a preliminary one up here, but I want everything recorded, and to me in an hour, got it?"

"On it Sir" the chief replied, before they dropped comms. As soon as that was done, another voice boomed over the bridge.

"This is Doctor Logan Mitchell, I've been trying to contact you for the last half an hour"

"Sorry Doctor, but we've only just got the comms back up"

"Whatever the case, sick bay is overflowing with people, so we've set up a temporary centre in the mess hall as well. I need you to send anyone with at least a years' worth of medical experience down here to help me"

"Acknowledge Doctor, Lieutenant Stone is sending a ship wide request now. Do what you can, and in an hour, I want you to send a full casualty list through ok?"

"I'll do my best sir" The doctor replied, causing the comms to drop again, with Kendall turning back to the remaining crew on the bridge, which was Lieutenants Stone, and Garcia as well as the two female ensigns. Taking a deep breath, Kendall spoke up again.

"Garcia, any luck with the weapons?"

"Not much sir, I've got an extra percent out of them but with main power down, it's been difficult."

"Very well, Stone I need you to scan the area around us to look for anything that will help hide our ship from sensors. Work with Garcia" he ordered, causing the two of them to nod before Kendall turned to the two girls working on the Conn console. "Ensigns…"

"Taylor and Roberts" the blonde girl said, pointing to herself and the brunette next to her respectively.

"Any luck getting Conn to work?"

"We're close sir, if we just connect these then…" and just as Roberts finished, the console lit up.

"Perfect. Roberts, what engines do we have available?"

"Only thrusters sir. Without main power, impulse won't work and we need the deflector at full to go to flash" she replied, causing him to nod.

"Ok, for the moment, I want you to work with Ensign Taylor to try and analyse some of that unknown gas we ran into. That way, he maybe able to get some idea as to what caused this. I need to you to keep an eye out for Garcia and Stone however, as if they find something to hide us, I need you to move the ship, is that understood?"

"Crystal clear sir" the brunette responded, causing Kendall to nod at the pair of them.

"I'm going to be in the captain's ready room running a few scans and scenarios myself. Stone, let Mitchell and Diamond know that instead of sending me their reports, I want to hold a senior staff briefing in an hour and I expect them to bring their information with them" he continued, causing her to nod as well.

With everyone's tasks assigned, Kendall made his way past the engineering and tactical stations, and into the captain's ready room.

Well, his ready room now.

* * *

As the automatic doors closed behind him, the blond couldn't help but slide down them, bringing his knees up to his chest as the full entirely of the situation dawned on him once again, and this time there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He was in control of a ship and crew he pretty much knew nothing about in a completely unexpected scenario that he could never have been trained for. Sure, the captain dying was always something that he had to consider, but he presumed that the circumstances would be a little different and he'd be close to friendly space. In this case, he was about 120,000 light years away from home and he had no one to help guide him through the situation. It was up to him to make the decisions that in some cases would be life threatening, and he would have to live with the consequences of such actions.

To put it simply, Kendall was not prepared for this, and in one word, fucked.

He couldn't help the flood of tears that seemed to accompany the thought but even in that situation, the blond knew it would be best to move away from the door and to the captain's, no, his desk. That way, he could at least look like he was doing something instead of having a pity party for one. When he arrived at his terminal, the first thing the blond focused on was finding a route home.

He believed that if he put a plan in place, it would help to focus his thoughts on the ship wide issues instead of his own personal ones, which did coincide, not that he wanted to think about it. The blond pulled up a star map and began to analyse their position against the galactic core as well as the coordinates for Earth, and they managed to provide a better understanding of his location within the galaxy.

He then plotted a course, one under the best circumstances, which showed that if they travelled in a straight line at a flash of 9.5, they could be home in about 75ish years. Of course, the best circumstances required them to travel constantly at flash 9.5, something that the ship wouldn't be able to sustain. Besides, even if it did, his current course also had the ship travelling through the galactic core, which he knew no ship could do, so really that plan was bust.

Instead, he began to plot a more realistic course, showing the ship travelling around the galactic core instead of through it, and he also made the plot account of supply stops, possible first contact encounters and natural barriers, such as impassable asteroid fields or black holes. He didn't have a clue if anything like this existed in this area of space, but it wouldn't hurt for him to be prepared if they did.

The calculations for this took around 5 minutes, but when they were finished, it showed a travel time of about 130 years, which even with modern medicine would be out of his life time. He'd be damned if he was going to settle for that, settle knowing that he'd never see his mother or sister again, settle knowing that the crew would also never see their families either.

With a deep breathe, and a sigh, the blond went back to the calculations, changing some of the variables slightly to see if he could shorten the time frame any more.

* * *

The hour passed relatively quickly, yet Kendall was unsuccessful in his attempt to lower his figure of 130 years. Even with the lowest amount of supply stops and a system of intense rationing aboard the ship, the journey was still going to take about 125 years which was about 100 years too long. Sighing, the blond rubbed his forehead before pushing the chair back from the desk and leaving the ready room. The bridge was filled with a couple of workman, who were currently replacing the girder in the ceiling, but apart from the portable lights they had brought with them, it was still under the red tint of the emergency lighting. With another sigh, he walked into the briefing room where everyone was sat.

"Thank you for meeting with me" he said as we talked in, and sat at the head of the table, gaining everyone's attention. Accompanying the bridge crew he met earlier were two males, one with a teal colouring on his uniform, two gold pips and a back one to signify his rank of Lieutenant Commander. _'Doctor Mitchell´_ Kendall thought to himself as his eyes shifted to the other brunet male aside him. His uniform featured a gold tint, but he had the same pips as Logan, showing he was also a Lieutenant Commander. _'Chief Engineer James Diamond'_ he thought before turning his attention back to the entire table.

"Right, I guess we should start with Lieutenants Garcia and Stone. Is the ship safe?" he asked, causing the two of them to nod as Lucy spoke up first.

"I found an asteroid which was large enough to conceal the ship both from sensors and from sight. We've matched its speed so we'll move along as it does" she replied, causing Kendall to nod as Carlos spoke up.

"I also managed to get beam power up to seven percent and enabled manual torpedo fire. It's not a lot, but we'll at least be able to pack a small punch"

"Perfect, at least this way we should be able to avoid any more damage while we try to get back up to full status." He stated, before turning to Doctor Mitchell. "What's the casualty figures?"

"15 killed, including Captain Hawk, and another 20 are severely wounded. We've stabilised them the best we can, but it'll be the next few hours that will make or break it. I want to say that all of them will survive, but we can only wait and see. Other than that, there were some minor injuries, like 10 broken arms, a couple of fractures and a concussion or two but I was able to sort them out relatively quickly once everyone who was severely injured was dealt with" Logan replied, causing Kendall to nod.

"We'll hold a service for everyone we lost. Give them a nice send off, like they deserve." He replied, before turning to James. "And damage report?"

"A lot, if I'm being honest. I check your preliminary and it got some of the main damage. There is hull breach from deck 12 through to 16 on our left side where the plasma conduit ran, but what wasn't mentioned that the explosion also reached a part of the nacelle, so that'll need to be repaired. The deflector also has some damaged and without it, the shields are useless and scanners are fairly limited in range, and we won't be able to create a stable flash tunnel without it when we get the flash drive back online. A few smaller systems are down, like the showers and replicators but I think it's safe to say that they are the least of our concerns."

"Any good news?"

"I may be able to get us impulse power if we reroute some power conduits around the ship, but that's about it. Until we know what the stuff was in the nebula that caused this, it's too risky for us to try anything. One wrong mistake, and it could easily be the death of us all. We were lucky enough the first time, so I don't want to risk it again" James finished, and that led Kendall perfectly to his next question.

"And finally, Ensign Taylor, did you find anything out about this element?" he asked, causing her to nod.

"Roberts and I are calling it Omega" she began, turning around and using one of the screens on the wall to show their findings. "It's a highly volatile and unstable element, due to the fact that one particle can produce a significant amount of power. I would estimate one particle could probably power this whole ship for about a month. When we stalled in the nebula, it's because the particles had travelled through intake manifolds and clung to the flash drive. As Chief Diamond said, we were extremely lucky the first time" she said, causing everyone to nod.

"And have you found a way to deal with them?" Kendall asked, causing her to tilt her head from side to side.

"The particles I studied are now very low in terms of the power that they contain, so we should be able to flush them from the drive. The problem is however, that they are still extremely unstable so I would advice caution while we do so." She finished, as she took her seat once again.

"Well I thank you all for you reports, but I think there is some information that I need to share" he began, as he stood up from his seat and began to pace up and down. "There isn't any easy way to say this, so I'm going to be blunt. At the moment, we are about 120,000 light years away from earth, and my best estimate for getting us home is around 130 years, and that's including supply stops, first contact and any unexpected distractions or detours" he began, turning back to everyone to see the glum looks on their faces. "I spent the last hour in the ready room, and that's the best I can come up with if we travel via the flash drive. But I was thinking, as unstable as these Omega particles are, they were able to get us here in a matter of seconds, so maybe they could get us back. I suggest that we follow a course home, but along the way we continue to study these particles, and see if there is a way to harness their power. Hopefully, we will encounter them again, and will be able to get home sooner" he finished, as paced back over to the head of the table, the room submerged into silence.

"It's better than nothing" he heard James mutter, followed by a resounding hum of approval for the rest of them.

"We give it a shot" Lucy added, causing everyone else to nod as they looked up at him.

"There is something else however. The matter of command" he stated, causing everyone to look at him with a puzzled face.

"I assumed you'd be taking over" Logan questioned, causing everyone else to nod as Kendall let out a sigh.

"I'm not going to lie to you all, I only got promoted about a week ago and found out about this posting about 3 hours ago, so I know very little about the crew and the ship. I'm happy to take command if you all want me too, but I will rely on you to help me out once in a while" Kendall replied causing them all to nod once more.

"Why not make the Chief you're first officer then? I mean, it was him and his father who helped build both the ship and the drive" Carlos said, as Kendall glanced over at James.

"I do know the ship like the back of my hand, so I know what to do in a crisis"

"So, it's agreed then. I'll take the role as captain, and James will be my first officer?" Kendall asked again, causing everyone to nod. "Sounds like a plan " he added, before he made his way out onto the bridge, with the crew following him from the briefing room. "Stone, open a ship wide hail. I think it's time we let the rest of the crew know what is going on" he commanded, and when she nodded back, Kendall began his speech.

"This is Commander Kendall Knight giving you all an update of our current situation. Captain Hawk unfortunately passed away when the flash drive went into overdrive mode, leaving me in control of the Diamond. The bad news is that we are currently 120,000 light years away from Earth, due to the core's overdrive which occurred due to a rogue element we encounter in the nebula. At our best estimate, it will take us about 130 years to reach home" he said, taking a deep breath as he glanced around at his crew beside him. "But that's not good enough, and I won't settle for it. On our journey, we will be looking for wormholes, advanced alien technology, anything that may shortened our journey. We have also decided to look further into the particles, which he have dubbed Omega. It was able to get us here in mere seconds, and it has the ability to get us home just as fast. On our journey, we will continue to study these particles so when we find them again, we will be able to harness and use them to get us home. I know that these will be trying times for us all, but we have to remain strong if we want to succeed, and I know that as a crew we can do that. I know that as a crew, we will make it home. Now everyone back to your posts. We have a long journey ahead of us, and I want to begin it as soon as possible"

* * *

 **So there we go, just a little something I have written. If you can't tell, this is heavily based off of Star Trek, and I will admit that I stole a lot of the designs from it. The Uniform and the Bridge is from Star Trek Voyager, so if you want a clear picture of what they look like, give it a google, and the ship is based off of the Enterprise C, or Ambassador Class, a ship design that I absolutely love!**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think, and I will see you all tomorrow of Love, James. But until then,**

 **TTFN :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi Guys and welcome back to The New Frontier! With the overwhelming support on the last chapter, I'd have a massive surge of enthusiasm for this story, hence why you are getting a new chapter so soon! So, thank you all so much for reviewing, but I'll get to that at the end of the chapter!**

 **So this chapter is structured differently to the last one, and you'll see what I mean when you read it. I'm planning for most of the chapters to be like this, so let me know what you think of it! Also, if you haven't noticed, these chapters are going to be a lot longer than my usual ones as it allows me to get a lot written about it, and each chapter will focus on a few day/story, but you'll see what I mean when I write it!**

 **I'm rambling now, so I'm just going to let you read it! Enjoy!**

* * *

"Acting Captain's Log, Stardate 62549.3721. It has been three days since we ended up in this unknown region of space. The crew have taken to calling this solar system the Bruo system, due to the fact that it features a binary star. Someone seemed to get confused and tried to say binary and duo at the same time, hence the name, not that it's relevant. In terms of a status update, I suppose we should start with the casualties that have occurred. Out of the 20 people that were severely injured, only 17 survived. The situation was completely out of the doctor's hands, but he still seems to hold himself responsible for losing them. A service was held for all 18 people that we lost, giving the crew a chance to say a few words for them before we said our final goodbye. Speaking of the crew, it's safe to say that a lot of them are struggling to adapt to our situation, and I have to admit that I can't blame them. I still haven't fully processed the information myself, being 130 years away from my home and my family, so I can understand how they feel. Nevertheless, they have all seemed to step up to the challenge, helping get the ship in order for movement again." Kendall sighed, looking out of the ready room window to see the asteroid the ship was still parked behind. The blond rubbed his forehead before continuing.

"As for a status update on that, we are still parked behind the asteroid that is hiding us, and according to Chief Diamond, it may be a few more days until we actually are able to leave it. The flash drive is still out of order, with only 50% of the Omega particles being removed from it, since Ensign Taylor is convinced that if we go any faster, the ship will blow up, and without the drive running, we're stuck at emergency power. Chief Diamond did manage to reroute impulse, but it's practically useless without the drive working, and the same can be said for the weapons, with Lieutenant Garcia struggling to divert any more power to the system, without taking it away from life support, something that no one is keen on doing. Repairs on the deflector have been slow going as well, especially since the ship wasn't equipped to deal with this much damage, so we hardly have the resources to do it. I've also been told that the parts are too big to replicate, so we can't just produce them on the spot, and the same goes for the nacelle and the breach on our left side." He paused, standing up from this chair, as he walked over to the window. The bags under the blond's eye were clear from his reflection in the window and Kendall almost struggle to recognise himself as he continued.

"It seems that I've been faced with my first proper dilemma as captain. We can't repair the ship without leaving this asteroid in search for the necessary materials, but I don't feel comfortable moving this ship without the flash drive and power being restored first. But this is where it gets real complicated. The emergency forcefield that is containing the breach is losing power, and according to Lieutenant Stone, we only have about 36 hours of power left before it collapses. If that forcefield collapses, we lose structural integrity in that area, and possibly the whole of decks 12-20, but it's going to take at least another 72 hours for power to be restored. Another problem is that without the deflector in working condition, we can't get a full scan of the system we are in, but in order to repair the deflector to see if this system has the resources we need, we need the resources to repair it." He continued, sitting down on the sofa that was under the window as he continued to speak.

"The logical answer would be to send a shuttle out to investigate but since we don't know much about this sector of space, I don't feel safe sending out a lightly armed vessel, hence the snag we are in. I know that I need to decide what to do and fast. The shuttle is probably our best bet, especially if we don't want to lose the bottom half of the ship, but how can I order someone to go on what is practically a suicide mission? Computer end log"

* * *

It was the next morning when Kendall heard a chime at his door go. The blond was currently working on Sorrow Letters for the families of the crew he had lost, but since he hardly knew them, it wasn't coming along so well. "Come in" he called out, and the door opened to reveal Chief Diamond, causing Kendall to internally groan slightly. The sight of James seemed to mean only one thing at the moment, and that was bad news. "Lay it on me" the blond said, gesturing to the seat opposite the desk, one that James was quick to take as he spoke.

"I'll start with the good news. The showers are up and running" he said, causing a small chuckle to leave Kendall's mouth before James continued. "The bad news is that, that's all we can actually repair for the moment. We need to get those resources sir, and there is no way around it" James reiterated, causing Kendall to nod dejectedly. "Once we have those, I can get the deflector, the nacelle and the breach fixed all at once. Then all we'll need to worry about is the drive."

"Then, I'll go first thing tomorrow" Kendall replied, causing James to raise his eyebrow at him. After his log yesterday, Kendall concluded that this was the only option that he could take, without risking anyone.

"Sorry, did you just say that you'll go?" the brunet asked, causing Kendall to nod.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to risk anyone else life on this. We don't know anything about this region of space, or the danger it contains, and I can't risk anyone. I'll do it"

"Sir, without being too callous, everyone is screwed if we don't get those resources. Sure, we know nothing about this region of space, but from a rough guess, our chances out there are 50/50. We either meet something dangerous or we don't. But I can tell you know that there is a 100% chance that we will lose the lower half of the ship when that forcefield fails." James replied, standing up from his seat and turning to Kendall. "If it will make you feel better about this, send Stone and me. The two of us know exactly what we are looking for and know our way around a shuttle. We can set up a specialised scan, that will only ping when it finds the resources we need, so no time will be wasted" he continued, causing Kendall to look up at the brunet, his eyes filled with doubt.

This was his first life or death scenario, and from the way James had worded it, death was assured if he didn't go through with it. The blond knew that James was right, and that they needed to get those resources or else the entire ship would suffer. And as James had said, there was no guarantee that they would face anything dangerous. "When can you leave?" Kendall asked, looking up at James as he did so.

"Right now" James replied, causing Kendall to swallow slightly, before he nodded, pressing his insignia.

"Lieutenant Stone, report to the shuttle bay" he commanded, before standing up from his seat. "Come on, I'll walk you down"

When the two of them got down to the shuttle bay, Lucy was already waiting for them and she greeted the two of them with a smile, although Kendall could see that it was slightly fake. "Stone, you and Diamond are going to find the resources we need to repair the ship, and I expect the two of you to be back within the next 6 hours" he ordered, both James and Lucy giving him a nod before boarding the shuttle. With the shuttle power on, and James about the close the air lock, Kendall spoke up again.

"And stay safe. Just remember that aside from the binary star, we know nothing beyond this asteroid so be careful. That's an order" he finished with a smile, which the two of them returned before Kendall stepped away, allowing the airlock to close. The commander watched as the shuttle left, hoping that the two of them knew what they were doing and would be able to find the resources they needed.

The fate of everyone on board was in their hands.

* * *

"We've cleared the Diamond" Lucy said, as she piloted the shuttle around the asteroid. Much like Kendall had said, they knew nothing about what was beyond it, and that was starting to make her nervous. She looked over to James, who was managing to maintain his composure and tried to focus on that as he spoke up next.

"Ok, so we need to run a scan of the solar system in order to get the layout of it. Then, we'll need to shorten the search parameters so that they'll only look for Trutium, Durinite, and Eplacite."

"I've also made an up link with the ship, so whatever data we get will be transferred to them as well."

"Nice going Stone" James replied, glancing over at the Lieutenant to give her a quick smile before turning back to his console, watching as the shuttle flew far enough fast the asteroid so that they could get a view of the binary stars that everyone kept mentioning.

Much like most binary stars, there was one star that was significantly larger and the two of them couldn't get over the deep red colour that it burned at. The smaller star was also a marvel, burning at a neon blue colour that captivated the two of them as James began the system scan. While the scan was running, the two of them couldn't help but watch as the stars interacted, watching as they transferred their mass to and from each other.

The moment was broken when the computer dinged, signalling that the scan was done. James was quick to read over the results, sighing as he did so before turning to Lucy and relaying the news.

"Ok, so we have 8 planets, none of which look like they could support life, but on top of that, we got 274 moons we need to survey" he began, causing Lucy to look over at him with awe on her face. "I know, and what makes it worse is that if we want the specialised scan to work, we'll need to orbit each of them to get a perfectly clear reading." He finished, causing Lucy to let out a sigh of frustration.

"Where do we even start with something like this?"

"I'm going to say the further planet out. If we start from the outside in, then hopefully we can push this right up to the limit of the time frame" James replied, causing her to nod as the inputted the co-ordinates for the planet on the out skirts of the solar system. As James began to set up the specialised scan, Lucy could feel a question scratching at her brain, and she knew she needed to ask it.

"So, I have to ask" she began, causing James to raise an eyebrow as to show he was paying attention to her. "You've said that the pieces we need are too big to replicate, so we'd need to mine for them. But, since we don't have an ore processor on board, or in fact any equipment that can help convert the ore into a piece of the hull, I'm confused as to what your plan is" When she finished her sentence, she could see the smirk that had formed on James face, and to be honest, it unsettled her slightly. "What? Have I missed something big?" she continued, causing him to shake his head.

"Quite the opposite actually, you've been really perceptive" he replied, before turning to her fully. "You are wrong however when you say that we don't have anything that can be used to process and build the part we need"

"What is it?"

"How about I give you a hint" James replied, quirking his eyebrow at her.

"Is this a challenge?"

"Do you think you can handle one?"

"Give it to me"

"One word. Energy"

* * *

Rubbing his hands over his face when stressed had seemed to become a new habit for Kendall, one that he quickly realised he didn't like. As if he wasn't stressed enough about sending James and Lucy out to get the resources for the ship, these sorrow letters were also putting pressure on him, and yes, he knew how bad that sounded.

Sure, the blond felt sorry for these families for losing their son or daughter, but that didn't help the fact that the blond hardly knew these people. Kendall had first-hand experience with a letter such as this, following his dad's death, and when he thought back to it, he couldn't help but think of all the heartfelt things that it had included. There were anecdotes about his father, both from when he was in command and when he was just relaxing with his crew and Kendall knew that he couldn't write anything close to that. He hardly knew the people that he was writing about, he didn't have any anecdotes about the times they had shared together and that just made the letters he was writing sound like a generic, 'insert name here' response, and Kendall knew that they deserved more than that.

Rubbing his hands over his head again, Kendall loaded up the personal file of one of the officers he was writing about, Crewman Munroe. His eyes glazed over the console and he knew for a fact that he wasn't taking any of the information in. There was nothing here that could actually help him, only Munroe's date of birth, his middle name, even his height, and it was all completely worthless. Closing his eyes, in the hope to provide him some sort of refreshment, the blond leaned back in his chair and stretched which provided him with some sort of comfort. When he opened his eyes back up, they seemed to focus on something he'd never really noticed before, the last posting of said officer.

"U.S.S. Forrester" Kendall read out loud and he couldn't help but think that the name had sounded familiar. The blond reflected back on it for a moment, repeating "U.S.S. Forrester" over and over again in the hopes that the name would somehow force the information to the front of his brain, and to his immense surprise, it actually helped. He'd recognised the name from a personal file that he had read on one of the senior officers. He hadn't had the chance to do it for everyone on the crew, and quite frankly he didn't care too, but the blond felt like it was important to get an idea on his trusted advisers, and he'd came across the name when he was reading…

It took the blond a second to think of who it was, but when he finally realised, a small smile grew on his face as he got in contact with them. It wasn't long before they were stood in his ready room.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?" Doctor Mitchell asked, raising his eyebrow at the blond as he took the seat opposite him.

"I didn't interrupt anything important, did I?" was the first thing Kendall asked, hoping the answer was no. He couldn't imagine the doctor coming up here during surgery, but the blond wanted to check anyway.

"Not really. I had a few follow up appointment schedules, but it's nothing Nurse Young can't handle" he replied, causing that small smile to grow back on Kendall's face. Really, it was super inappropriate for the blond to be smiling at and while he did feel incredibly guilty about it, he couldn't help the good feeling that he gained when he knew that he had some support with this. Leaning forward in his chair once again, Kendall began to speak.

"I've been trying to write the sorrow letters for the crew members that we lost, but I'm having a hard time since I don't know anything about them. But I did notice that you served with them on the Forrester" he said, causing Logan to nod as a small, sorrowful smile grew on his face.

"It was Captain Hawk's old ship, and a lot of us transferred when he got the knew assignment" the doctor began, glancing up at Kendall. "I can give you a want writing them if you like?"

"That would be helpful" Kendall replied, spinning his monitor screen around so that the doctor could see what he had so far. He saw how Logan was reading through it, and a small smile grew on his face as he began to talk.

"Munroe never actually came to me for medical assistance, I would always have to go to her. She would always claim that she was fine, even when she had some of the nastiest cuts I'd ever seen"

Kendall nodded along the whole time, adding what Logan was saying as the brunet spoke. A sense of relief washed over Kendall as he did so, this time it was because he knew he was finally doing his lost crew members and their families justice.

* * *

As Lucy and James got into orbit of the second planet, Lucy still couldn't seem to figure out what James meant with the word 'energy.' Her best guess was that he was going to use the resources to hurry along the process in order to boost the ships energy levels, but even she knew that didn't make any sense. What wound her up even more was the fact that James had remained silent on the subject since the bet had begun.

He would talk to her about what was on the planet, and whether it was worth investigating but that was it, and to be honest, it was starting to infuriate her that she couldn't seem to solve it. For the meantime, she was determined to remain strong and not crack. Of course, that all changed when they got to the 20th Moon around the gas giant.

"Finally, a large amount of Eplacite!" James stated, breathing out a sigh of relief as he did so.

"I'll ready the mining lasers" Lucy replied, a small smile gracing her face as she did so. As she watched the laser cut into the ore, the puzzle kept resurfacing in her mind and now she couldn't ignore it, especially with success staring her in the face. Knowing that she was no closer to solving it than she was when James first tested her with it, she decided it was time to swallow her pride.

"You win, I can't figure it out" she said, glancing over to James to see if a smug smile had graced his face due to the victory. Instead, he remained focused on his work as he spoke.

"I'm guessing you want to know how I'm going to do it" he asked, looking up from the console to face the black haired girl. When she nodded, expecting an answer, James surprised her with another question. "How do the replicators work?" he questioned, causing a confused look to grow on her face.

"They synthesise the necessary molecules and then place them into the right order" she replied, causing James to nod.

"Right, so they use energy to produce the necessary components, essentially converting energy into matter" he began, and that's when he saw a spark in Lucy's eyes. She'd got it. "So, what else converts matter into energy"

"The transporters!"

"Right, so by using the transporter instead of the replicator, we can start to produce these parts at a bigger scale"

"Wait, I'm still confused" Lucy replied, thinking over what James had said. "While the replicators and the transporters are the similar, they still aren't compatible. We can't use the replicators to create human life because the patterns for it are too complex"

"You're right, the pattern for human life is too complex for a replicator, but it isn't too complex a transporter, due to it's larger size. So, my plan is to dumb the transporter down to an extent that we can use it as a massive replicator. We have the size and the scale to do so" James replied, and while it made sense to her in theory, she was curious to see whether it would actually work in practise. There was another thing weighing on her conscious however. "I'm still confused about this. The ship is running on emergency power, and to do all of this is going to take a lot of power. I mean replicators have been banned for that reason" she replied, and her answer was another smug look from James.

"How do the replicators work again?" James said, causing her to shake her head as she answered.

"They use energy to create matter"

"And how to transporters work?"

"They convert matter into energy and back into matter" she replied, her voice trailing off at the end of the sentence as she had figured that part out as well. James could see the enthusiasm in her eyes as she spoke. "That's why we're getting the ore! The replicators are banned because they need to create the molecules before they rearrange them into the object we want, but if we already have the molecules we need, and we are just shaping their position in the item then we half the power we use!" she enthused causing James to nod.

"Perfect. We can use the transporters to lock onto the pure molecules that we need, and then rearrange those into the shape and size of the material that we need. The impure parts will just be left, and we can easily deal with them" he stated, and just as he finished, the computer dinged, signalling that the ore was mined and ready for collected.

As James initiated the transporters, moving the ore into the cargo hold of the shuttle, Lucy turned to him once more.

"I have to say Sir, that really is impressive, and I have no doubt that you can do it" she commented, causing a smile to grow on James' face.

"You know, I'd be honoured if you'd help me" he replied, causing a small blush to form of hers.

"Thank you, sir, I'd love to."

* * *

"Everyone on board seemed to like Johnson. He would always smile at everyone and say hi to them when he passed them in the corridor, and he always tried to stay hopeful in bad situations" Logan continued, Kendall writing down everything he said. The two of them had been at this for about 3 hours now, and while Kendall was getting slightly antsy about James and Lucy, he knew that they were fine.

Hopefully fine, at least.

Logan was doing a good job at keeping him distracted however so he was grateful to the doctor for that. With the stories Logan had told him, Kendall couldn't help but feel that he was truly doing the lost crew members justice, knowing that these letters would help their families start to cope with their loss. When Logan took a break for breath, Kendall quickly spoke up.

"Uh, Doctor, I just wanted to say thank you for helping me with these" he began, seeing the smile that had formed on Logan's face when he had said it. "I got one of these letters when my father died, and the main thing that helped me move on was knowing that he was a great man, not only to us but to everyone. The stories in these letters show that about the crew members we lost, and I know that their families will be really proud of them knowing all of this" he continued, a small tear coming to his eye as it thought about it.

"I'd glad I could help" Logan replied, as Kendall wiped the tear from his eye. No words were needed at that moment as the two of them reflected on the weight of this situation, the two of them gaining a small amount of happiness knowing that they were doing a good thing.

That moment was cut short however when the lights suddenly turned to a red that they were all too familiar with as the computer began to blare "Red Alert, Flash Breach Imminent" over and over again.

"For god sakes, why does this thing go off every five seconds!" Kendall yelled in rage as he rose from his chair. The moment was completely ruined, and that's what angered the blond. Both him and the doctor made their way out of the office, but once they reached the lift, the alert seemed to silence. The two of them raised an eyebrow at each other, before Logan spoke up.

"I should probably get back to sick bay in case we have some wounded" he said, causing Kendall to nod as the lift doors closed. When the lift reached deck 7, Logan quickly departed leaving Kendall to head to deck 10, where engineering was situated. Between his trip from the lift to engineering, the alert had blared and been silenced once again, so when he finally reached the required area, it was safe to say that the blond was completely confused, if not slightly sick of the constant fear of death.

When he walked in, he could see how everyone was running about with Jo panicking by a console.

"Ensign, what the hell is going on!" The blond demanded, trying to keep his voice void of rage but slightly failing.

"I don't know sir. It…I was just doing the same thing that I usually do when the alert went off! When it silenced the process automatically continued causing the alarm to go off again" she responded, causing Kendall to quirk an eyebrow at her.

"Then surely it has to do with the ventilation process" he replied, but it was clear from the look on her face that one, she knew that and two, she was no engineer and didn't know why. Luckily, a crewman was quick to explain why.

"If I may interject?" he began, causing both blondes to turn to him. "The issue, much like everything else, is with the emergency forcefield collapsing" he continued, making his way over to a console and pulling up a visual of that area of the ship. "As you know, it was the plasma conduit that caused the explosion in the first place and when the emergency forcefield went up, it filled the gap in the conduit, allowing the plasma to continue to flow. But now that the forcefield is failing, there is intermittent outages occurring which means that the plasma is backing up instead of being vented out"

"What can be done to help it vent?"

"At the moment, we are thinking of trying to change the positioning of the forcefield, so instead of the plasma having to reach the nacelle before it is vented, we are hoping to have it vent out of the side of the ship. It's the best we've got"

"Then go for it" Kendall said, a small smile growing on his face. "Nice thinking Crewman…"

"Stetson, sir. Jett Stetson" he replied, nodding quickly before heading back into the mess of people flurrying around in the section.

Kendall only hoped he knew what he was doing.

* * *

It was the 147th moon when James and Lucy had finally hit a jackpot, the two of them giddy with excitement as the scan came in. "This moon has all the Trutium and Durinite that we'll need for a long time. If we can grab all of this, then we'll be sorted!" James enthused, as he reviewed the scan over and over again. It was true, with these materials the ship could probably sustain damage like it did about five more times before they would have to replenish their supplies, but James knew that Kendall could never let it get that far.

"There is one problem however" James continued as he read over the scan further. "From what I can tell, the moon has a really thick atmosphere and a strong gravitation constant. That means that we'll need to get down to the surface of the moon before the mining lasers will actually be able to cut into the rock, and we won't have long before the thrusters give out"

"So, what are we waiting for?" Lucy replied, seeing the look of concern on James' face as he spoke. "We won't be able to find another score like this and the commander wants us back in about 2 hours. We should go for it" she continued, James running the numbers in his head as she spoke.

"You're right, we won't find another score like it" he began, typing a few numbers into the computer as he spoke. "According to this, as soon as we hit the atmosphere we'll have an hour in order to mine all of the resources we need. The Durinite and Trutium are spaced about half an hour away from each other and it will take around 10 minutes to mine them each. We can do it, but it'll be tight" he replied, before turning to Lucy. "I suggest strapping in, it's going to be bumpy" he continued, as he strapped himself with the harness, Lucy quickly following suit.

With the two of them sharing a look, Lucy plugged into the coordinates to the Durinite, the computer showing its location on the map, and with a deep breath, she began to pilot the shuttle down to the moon's surface. As soon as the two of them hit the atmosphere, the turbulence became strong, shaking the shuttle as Lucy continued to pilot them on their descent, and there were a few times when the turbulence was strong enough to push them off course slightly but it was nothing that Lucy couldn't correct.

As the shuttle descended, James continued to run scans just to make sure that this was worth it, and as he got closer to the moon, he saw how the ore veins seemed to continue to expand. There was a lot more ore here than they had originally scanned and that news was enough to cause James to become giddy, running even more calculations to see how far they could push this and how much they could gather.

When the shuttle finally hit the lower layer of the atmosphere, the turbulence seemed to settle slightly, with only mild winds now attacking the shuttle, nothing was that enough to push them around. With the shuttle in position, Lucy readied the mining lasers and before long, the two of them watched as it carved into the ore. James shared the information with Lucy, revealing that there was so much more ore, but she was quick to become sceptical.

"I don't know sir. I mean, if we can mine what we first predicted, then that should be enough to keep us going to a little while. I really don't think we should push our luck. Especially with how rapidly the moon's atmosphere is changing" Lucy replied, tracking a storm that had formed not far from their location, something James had overlooked on his previous scan. The brunet stayed silent, knowing that he had allowed his excitement to get the better of him, something he put down to the fact that this was probably the first good news he had received within the last 72 hours.

With a nod, James replied. "I suppose you're right. We'll stick to the original plan" he replied, turning to face the mining laser as it continued its job. As silence emerged over the cabin, James returned to his work station, using the time available to figure out the precise amount of material he would need to repair the ship, as well as how much he would left over.

It was certainly something that would keep his mind occupied for the time being.

* * *

"Crewman Stetson, has it worked?" Kendall asked from the bridge of the ship, watching the breach on the main view screen. He didn't feel like working on the sorrow letters after all he had done on them this morning, and it wasn't like he was in a rush to get them done. He still had 130 years before they needed to be completed.

Well, that and also the fact that it was an hour and a half until James and Lucy were supposed to be back on the ship, and Kendall was getting more agitated every second they were gone.

"It has worked sir, but" Jett replied over the comms, causing Kendall to let out a groan at the new bad news he was going to get. The word 'but' was never followed by something good, especially within the past three days. "The divert meant that we needed to generate more force fields in order for it to work. That means that we only have about 19 hours now until they completely collapse." He finished, silence filling the comms as Kendall reviewed the news. 19 hours wasn't a lot anyway, and if James and Lucy weren't successful in their mission, then Kendall could basically kiss the ship goodbye. "At least we don't need to worry about the Omega particles blowing us up"

"I suppose that's true. Knight out" Kendall replied, cutting off comms with Jett before he let out a frustrated sigh at the news.

"Don't worry sir. Lieutenant Stone and Chief Diamond will be back. They're resourceful and know exactly what to do in a crisis" he heard Carlos speak up from behind him, and he couldn't help the smile that that brought to his face.

"You're probably right Lieutenant. I just hope they get back soon" Kendall replied, glancing over his shoulder to look at Carlos. Despite the calm exterior that the Lieutenant was maintaining, the blond could see the small amount of panic that was reaching his eyes. "God I really hope they are back soon" he mumbled low enough so that no one could hear him.

Checking the console between the two seats, Kendall watched as the clock ticked down to when the two of them would be back.

* * *

"Warning, structural integrity failure due to high pressure on the outer hull" the computer spoke, snapping James and Lucy out of their jobs.

"What, I thought we still had another 15 minutes before we had to leave" Lucy said, moving over to James' console to review the current situation with him.

"Apparently, the storm has caused the pressure in the atmosphere over this area to increase significantly" James replied, before glancing over to the mining laser. "How far are we along?" he asked, causing Lucy to shake her head as she began to speak.

"If we stop now, we'll have to leave the resources behind. They are still connected to the larger vein and we won't be able to transport it until the laser finishes" she replied, James running a few more calculations as she spoke.

"Ok, so this might not sound great but if we cut life support to 75%, that should give us enough power to reinforce the structural integrity for a further 3 mins, which should allow the laser to finish" he replied, seeing Lucy nod from beside him.

"Go for it. I'll see if I can change the laser's course slightly, so it will finish quicker. We'll lose a small part of the ore, but either that or our lives" she replied, changing the protocols she spoke off. It was touch and go for those few minutes, with James trying to balance the power levels to ensure that the ship wasn't entirely crushed, while Lucy kept an eye on the ore, to see the fastest time that she could cut the laser and transport the ore. When that time came, her actions were rapid as she completed the task.

"Get us out of her Stone" James said, glancing over to her from his console. The life support system was down to 70% by this point, and even with the added power to reinforce the hull, James could hear how the shuttle creaked under the pressure, as well as see where small dents were forming. With the lasers retracted and the ore transported, Lucy turned the shuttle towards the sky, and began to pilot their way out of the moon's atmosphere.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as she thought, especially when the shuttle began to stall.

"Shit" James said from the console, as he figured out what had happened. "We didn't account for the weight of the ore under this atmosphere. We would have to divert more power to the thrusters in order to get us out of the atmosphere, but we can't do that without taking it away from another critical system" he stated, watching as the power levels fluctuated on the screen. In his eyes, they were in a conundrum, one that didn't have an acceptable outcome. They would need to lose all the ore in order for the thrusters to be enough at their current power, but he knew that the ship was depending on them.

While James was in a state of internal panic, Lucy was surveying the map of the moon when she seemed to stumble upon her answer. In a split second decision, Lucy turned the shuttle back towards the moon's surface, something that James picked up on.

"Stone, what are you doing?" he asked, noticing how life support had dropped a further 5 percent to reinforce the hull again.

"Do you trust me sir?" was her answer to his question.

"I do Stone, but I'd still rather know what we are doing" he replied, raising his eyebrow at the girl sat at the helm, almost like the positions earlier were reversed. As the shuttle shot across the surface, more dents began to form in the hull and the creaking sound became louder. So loud that Lucy had to shout over it to explain her plan to James.

"Well, we've been tracking that hurricane since we've arrived at the planet, and that has been the source of our problems. Of course, the hurricane is rotating at a speed of 200mph, and while that doesn't seem like a lot at the moment, we should be able to ride the funnel up, using it as a slingshot to help us build enough speed to leave the atmosphere" she replied, as the storm came into view. "The only issue with that is whether the hull will be able to hold"

"I'm dropping life support down to 50% and diverting the remaining power to structural integrity. The air is going to become very thin for a second, but I think that's the least of our concerns." James replied, as the shuttle began to travel into the eye wall, and Lucy followed its cylindrical funnel up.

The computer began to rave like mad, reporting how the hull of the ship had dropped from 50 to 40%, and James couldn't help but notice the extreme amount of dents that were forming in the hull. While Lucy had some control over the shuttle's position, it was ultimately up to the hurricane as to where the shuttle was going to be. With the shuttle finally reaching the upper limits of the hurricane, Lucy was quick to divert all of the power to the shuttle's impulse engines, praying that it would be enough the propel themselves out into space.

As the altitude of the shuttle continued to climb, and the creaking of the hull continued to louden, the two of them grabbed onto the closest thing possible, hoping to keep themselves secure in case the worst scenario happened.

With one final extreme jolt, enough to throw James against the console in front of him, the shuttle entered a state of bliss with the loud noise ceasing to exist anymore. The computer had stopped blaring the status of the hull and the two of them were met with the darkness of space as they stared out of the front window, something they both sighed in relief at.

Noticing they had done that at the same time, the two of them glanced over at each other, and as soon as their eyes met, they burst into laughter at the events that had transpired and the fact that they were safe. It was James who was first to speak through his hysterics.

"You're insane Stone."

"Well, it worked didn't it?" she replied, wiping some tears from beneath her eyes as their laughter died down.

"I guess we should head back to the ship" James stated, causing her to smile.

"Course already charted sir"

* * *

"You're late" were the first words that left Kendall's mouth when the shuttle's airlock finally opened. Despite his stern tone, the two of them could see the smile that was on his face as he spoke.

"Would it be acceptable if I told you we have enough resources to keep the ship running for about 5 more incidents like this?" James replied, as he transported the materials from the shuttle's cargo hold into the Diamond's main one.

"I suppose that would be acceptable" Kendall quipped back, as James and Lucy departed the shuttle. "Can we get to work right away?" Kendall asked, as he walked with the two of them over to the lift.

"Stone and I are going to get on it now sir. Give us about three hours and the hull breach should be fixed." James replied, causing Kendall to nod as they stepped into the lift.

"Thank god. We've had a development since you've been gone, and the sooner the problem is fixed, the better" the blond replied, causing James to quirk an eyebrow at him. "A problem with the ventilation of the Omega particles. Crewman Stetson came up with an innovate solution, but it did put a strain on our power reserves. Still, he's a fine officer"

"I'll be sure to let him know that sir" James replied as the lift finally stopped at the cargo bay, revealing all of the ore they had collected. Kendall's eyes widened at the amount causing James to chuckle at the awe on the blond's face.

"You certainly weren't lying, were you"

"Not at all. It was a bit of a struggle to get it, but I think it will pay off. You have Lieutenant Stone to thank for getting it here" James replied, causing a blush to settle on Lucy's face when Kendall glanced over and smile at her.

"It was nothing sir" Lucy replied, causing Kendall to chuckle.

"Well, whatever the case, the two of you have done a great job today. Without you, we probably wouldn't have made it" he replied, earning a nod from the two of them. "I'll let you get to work then" he finished, patting James on the back before making his way to the lift. When the lift doors finally closed, James and Lucy let out another sigh before they got to work.

"Lieutenant, for the moment, I want you to separate the ore into three piles. That way, it will make it easier to get a lock on the pure elements" he instructed, causing her to nod as he pressed onto his comm badge. "Crewman's Adams and Moore, I need you to get into a couple of worker bees, and head round to the hull breach. You'll be responsible for patching up the hole" he continued, watching as pile of ore became three beside him. "Right, so now we need to change the programming slightly so that we can manipulate the molecules much like a replicator. So, what I need you to do is isolate about a fifth of the pure molecules from each other the piles and place them into the transport buffer. Once they are in there, we can use this part of the console to fiddle with the molecular structure and combine the three of them into the alloy that the hull is built of."

Walking over to the console where Lucy was working, James watched as the ore started to crumble from where the metal had been removed. A smile graced Lucy's face as she watched the process happen, and when she turned to where James was working, she was fascinated by the changes he was making to the program. The two of them must have worked on that process for an hour, making sure that everything was set and proper in order for it to work. During that time, Lucy learnt so much about the internal systems of the ship and how the worked, and she knew that it was something she'd love to continue to learn. Becoming the chief engineer of a starship was never something she could picture herself becoming, but just from helping James through this process, she seemed to get a rush she had never experienced before.

When helping her out with that, James could see this glint that was sparkling in her eyes, and let Lucy help out whenever she could along the process. A mentor, mentee bond had started to form throughout this mission, and it was clear that the two of them wanted to continue this, with Lucy hoping to learn a lot from James during their journey home.

* * *

"Acting Captain's log, supplemental. It's been five hours since Chief Diamond and Lieutenant Stone have returned from their expedition into the solar system in order to gain the resources we needed, and the hull breach is finally sealed meaning that we no longer face structural integrity loss in the lower hull. There is still a lot of work to be done in that area however, with interior walls, flooring and some conduits being replaced but we are not in as much of a rush as we were before. The ventilation problem has also been resolved and the Omega particles are now being vented out of the nacelles much like they are supposed to be. Despite the lack of imminent danger, it's safe to say that the crew have found a new spark of energy and repairs are coming along quite well. Repairs on the deflector and nacelle are underway and I've been told that they should be ready for use by the morning. The crew are also reviewing the sensor data collected by the shuttle, hoping to gain a better understanding of this area of space, but I feel like there is something I must confess. The reality of the situation has now fully dawned on me, and it's safe to say that I'm slightly freaking out, probably more than I was earlier. Now that the ship is going to be operational again, that means that we are going to have to start our journey home and will therefore be facing new problems and challenges every day and while I have no doubt that the crew is ready to face this, I'm starting to wonder if I am. I suppose if anything, today has taught me that I need to trust in everyone else a little bit more. I mean, despite my personal doubts and fears, Stone and Diamond were able to get everything we needed, and they showed that they were capable of looking out for themselves. The same could be said for Crewman Stetson, as he had a solution to the problem within mere moments of it occurring. Maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe I just need to trust in the crew as much as they seem to trust in me. I think it's going to take me a while to do that, but what do you expect from a Commander that has been thrown into a situation like this?"

Kendall's monologue was interrupted by a chime at his quarter's door, and the blond was quick to end the log as he made his way over to it. When the door opened, he was greeted with the sight of Chief Diamond holding a couple of glasses as well as a small bottle of champagne. "Chief Diamond" Kendall questioned, raising his eye brow at the brunet, causing James to chuckle.

"We're off duty, call me James" James replied, flashing Kendall a smile as the blond allowed him into his quarters. "I thought we could celebrate after everything that has happened today. I mean the ship is finally out of danger and will be up and running by the morning!" The brunet continued as he placed the glasses down onto Kendall's table, and unscrewed the champagne cork, before pouring the liquid into a glass.

"I suppose it can't hurt" Kendall replied with a shrug as he picked up said glass, waiting for James to do the same. When he did, Kendall made a quick toast. "To the U.S.S Diamond and her crew. May our voyage home be swift and successful"

"Amen" James replied, the two clinking glasses before taking a sip. As the two of them settled onto the sofa, James spoke up first. "So…"

"Kendall"

"So Kendall, I realised that I don't actually know much about you" the brunet began, causing Kendall to chuckle as he took another sip.

"We haven't really had much time to chat."

"Yeah, I guess that happens when the ship is on the verge of collapse. But now that everything is running smoothly, I thought we could get to know each other. A good part of team work is communication" James replied, causing Kendall to nod.

"I'll start" James began, taking another sip of his champagne. "I've got my mum and dad waiting for me back home. We were always a close family, and I guess you can see that with me and my dad working on the Diamond together. It was the two of us who came up on the designs for the new flash drive together, and when we proposed it to the UEF, they were really impressed, hence why they christened the ship, the Diamond" the brunet took a sip of his champagne before continuing. "At first, they offered dad the post for Chief engineering, with me a rank under him, but he wanted me to have the job. 'This is your journey now son' he said to me. I bet he's regretting that now" he chuckled, a small tear welling up in his eyes as he spoke. "What about you?"

"I've got my mum and my sister waiting for me" Kendall began, taking a sip of his own glass before continuing. "My dad died a few years back on a mission. His ship was on a routine survey of the Nescon System when they ran into a Croxon ship. It seems that they have claimed that system the day before and open fired on his ship. They were able to escape, but it was too late for him. During the cross fire, Dad had been working on a console when it short circuited and electrocute him." The blonde continued, wiping the tear that had formed under his eye.

"Oh Kendall, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked" James replied, reaching over and pulling the blond into a small hug.

"No, it's fine, you didn't know, and like I said it was a few years ago now, so I'm used to people asking" Kendall responded, before taking a deep breathe and continuing. "So, no partners you left behind or anything?" he asked, causing James to let you a hearty laugh.

"Unfortunately not. With me working on the Diamond, there was no time for socialising. What about you?"

"It's quite funny actually. I was seeing someone and we were together for about 3 years, served on the same ship and everything. But when I got the news of my promotion, things started to fall apart a little bit, with him saying that he didn't want to do 'long distance.' It's lucky for him, I suppose. 120,000 light years is quite a long distance" Kendall joked, a small chuckle leaving his mouth as he said so.

James however gained a small smile when he heard what Kendall had said.

"Boyfriend eh? I didn't see that coming" he replied, causing Kendall to quirk an eyebrow at him.

"That's not going to be a problem is it?" he replied, his voice stern as to show that he wasn't going to deal with a load of homophobia.

Instead, James let out a small chuckle, replying with "It's the exact opposite of a problem" causing a small blush to settle on the Commander's face.

120,000 light years didn't seem as far anymore.

* * *

 **So there we have it! This chapter mostly focused on the ship being repaired due to all the damage that was caused in the last chapter! Like I said earlier, most of the chapters will be like this, with it having a main story line, as well as a sub plot of sorts, so let me know what you think about it!**

 **I just want to say a massive thank you to Guest, Winterschild11, RainbowDiamonds and EpicallyObsessed for reviewing the last chapter, and know that it was your feedback that inspired me to continue this story! I'm glad you guys liked the references I put in there, like 2J and that you all approved of the places where I put everyone! There was no better position for Logan than Doctor, and I love the idea of Carlos being in control of the weapons! Plus, I think James would make a brilliant engineer! I have a lot planned for Commander Kendall and the crew of the Diamond, so I'm glad that you all want to read it!**

 **I will see you all on Thursday for the next chapter of Love, James but until then,**

 **TTFN :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys and welcome back to the next chapter on The New Frontier! So, I've had a really good day today and decided to get this out! Love, James is now completely written and since I was in the writing mood, I also managed to crack all of this out as well! So, I will apologise now for any grammatical errors.**

 **Anyway, let's get on with it shall we?**

* * *

When Kendall walked onto the bridge that morning, he saw how everyone was rushing about, or tapping away at their console, making sure that everything was up to scratch. It had been three days since James and Lucy had returned with all the materials they needed to repair the ship, and everything was now up and ready. Repairs on the nacelle and deflector had been repaired the day after they had gotten back, but it was the flushing of the Omega Particles which had kept them was moving on and while Ensign Taylor had been able to up the speed slightly on the process, it still took a while for it to be completed. While that was being done, Kendall had tasked the crew with reviewing the data collected from James and Lucy's shuttle trip, and they had discovered nothing interesting. Well, nothing interesting in Kendall's eyes. Logan however had had a field day with some of the data, because he found some small bacteria samples, which he dubbed the first known life forms in the new quadrant, so he spent most of his time reviewing them. He found that a lot of them had the possibility to develop into a sentient life form in the future, about 100 million years in the future, but still he was excited.

Other than that, the ship had been run like usual, with everyone getting on with their business. With the deflector up, Lucy was able to make a long range scan of the area of space the occupied, so they now had a better idea of what they were going to face, Carlos was completing drills with his security team to make sure they were up to scratch, and Camille was running tests on the ships navigational systems to make sure that they were operating properly. So, when Kendall walked onto the bridge that morning, he was excited to see everyone running around, making sure that everything was ready because he knew that they were finally leaving. Taking a deep breath, he made his way over to his chair where he pulled up the centre console, ready to begin dishing out orders. As soon as he sat up straight, the room seemed to silence, so he knew he was ready to begin, and it seemed like everyone else was as well, when they looked upon him with hopeful eyes.

"Chief Diamond, status of the flash drive" he asked, turning his head towards the brunet who was occupying the engineering console for a change. The brunet gained a small smirk on his face, as he turned to his console and loaded up the information Kendall wanted to see.

"Up and running sir. She's ready to be used" James replied, turning back to Kendall, seeing the smile on the blond's face.

"Lieutenant Stone" he asked, turning towards the operations officer.

"Power levels are at 100%, and the crew are in position" she replied, Kendall nodding once again, before turning his head over to his Latino tactical officer.

"Lieutenant Garcia?"

"Shields are at 100%, and weapons are on standby" Carlos replied, causing Kendall to nod once again, before pressing his insignia.

"Doctor Mitchell report"

"Sickbay is ready, and all emergency med kits have replenished. We're ready Commander" Logan's voice radiated throughout the bridge, everyone nodding at his last words. Indeed, they were all ready and waiting to begin their journey home.

"Alright then" Kendall said, pulling himself up from his seat, as if to try and make the moment more dramatic. The blond made his way down to the Conn console, where Camille was sat, and with one hand resting on her shoulder, he spoke again. "Ensign set a course…for home" Kendall said, adding the pause in the middle of the sentence, once again mostly for dramatic effect. This was a big moment for the crew, one that he knew everyone would remember, so he might as well make it good. With a nod of her head, Kendall watched as Camille inputted the coordinates to Earth, and then turned to the thrust controls on the flat panel. She was quick to glide her fingers up the device, the thrust bars following as she did so, and the whole bridge crew watched the view screen as the ship began to move. With the asteroid passing to their right, the crew were greeted with a view of the binary solar system once again, something that all of them, except James and Lucy, hadn't witnessed within a week.

There was a communal sigh as they finally departed the asteroid, and as Camille began to move the ship out of the solar system, Kendall made his way back to his chair, a smile on his face as he did so. By the time the blond had sat down, they were faced with nothing but the darkness of space, a nice change to the brown rock that the asteroid was made out, and with a quick purring from the engines, they all watched as the ship jumped the flash for the first time since they had arrived at this god forsaken place.

"The flash drive is holding steady, no signs of residuals left from the Omega Particles." James said, as he continued to stare at the information read out in front of him, watching how his baby performed.

"Stone, could you transfer that scan data onto my console, I want to see what sort of things we are going to be facing" Kendall asked, causing Lucy to nod as she transferred the data. Kendall kept an eye on his console, watching as the new information flooded onto it, and once it was done, he flashed a quick smile back at her. "Thank you, Lieutenant." He began, before turning his attention back to James. "Chief, fancy reviewing this with me?" he asked, James zoning back in at Kendall's words.

It took him a few moments to realise what Kendall had said, causing the blond to chuckle, before he made his way over to his first officer seat next to Kendall's. The two of them leaned into the middle of the seats, where the console protruded from, and as they did so, their shoulders touched every so slightly. Neither of them seemed to mention the obvious action however, as they began to look over the data. "So, by the looks of it, most of the nearby systems have dead planets, but there are a few that are L and M class. That could mean Alien life" Kendall began, causing James to nod slightly.

"It might be worth checking out a few of those dead planets however. I know we haven't mentioned this just yet, but we'll need to keep an eye out on our Raspite Crystal supply" James replied, causing Kendall to nod. James was right, as the Raspite Crystals were what controlled the matter, anti-matter conversation rates, and without them, the whole ship would explode. "I'm not saying we're running low, but I'm just pointing we should" he added, causing Kendall to glance at him slightly before he continued.

"We also need to consider food as well. With the replicator restrictions, it not as if we can just replicate every meal we need, so we may want to start producing some of our own fruits and vegetables." Kendall began, before loading up the schematics of one of the cargo bays in the ship. "I was thinking we could use Cargo Bay 4. It was temperature controls, so we can adjust the climate to the plant we are growing, making the entire place into a hydroponics bay"

"We'd have to add pipes from the ships water supply so that it's covered, but we can do it for sure. I can get some people down there right now to have a look if you want?" James asked, causing Kendall to nod before James issued the order. Once they had a few people working on it, Kendall found himself leaning back in his seat slightly as he let out a sigh. That caused James to glance over at him slightly with an eyebrow raised. "What's up?" he asked, causing Kendall to shrug slightly.

"I'm just glad were moving again, I don't think I could have stayed by the asteroid for much longer"

"But?" James asked, causing a small sad smile to grow on Kendall's face.

"But now were actually moving again. With the asteroid came a sense of security I suppose, and now that's gone, I feel…vulnerable and I'm worried about what we might find out here" Kendall confessed, slightly shocked that he was opening up to the brunet. "I mean, I'm responsible for everyone on this ship, and If I don't know what we are going to face, how can I assure everyone that things will be alright?"

"You can't" James replied, causing Kendall to look over at him shocked. "What? It's true. You can't assure everyone that everything will be ok, but no captain ever can Kendall, it's part of the job. But, what you need to do it trust in the ship and in the crew. Everyone knows the risks of the job, and they accepted that when they came aboard. No one forced them to do that, and therefore they are responsible for what happens to themselves, not you"

"Thanks James" Kendall replied, giving James a small smile as he said it, causing the two of them to lock eyes. Kendall couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the hazels ones staring back at him, James suffering from the same issue with Kendall's green eyes, and they both seemed to get the same feeling stirring in their gut. Luckily, before the two of them got any further, they were interrupted by Camille asking Lucy something, causing him to snap out of their trance. A small blush graced both their cheeks, but James was the first one out of them to speak.

"I should probably get back to my um…console" he said, causing Kendall to nod slowly.

"Of course, and thank you for the help Chief" Kendall replied, as James pulled himself out of the first officers' seat. Kendall had to try his hardest not to stare at the brunet as he made his way over to the console, but when James sat down, he glanced back at Kendall, causing the two men to catch each other's eyes once again. Kendall gave James a quick smile, before turning his attention back to the console in between the seats, where he tried his hardest not to think about what just happened.

Of course, that didn't stop the occasional thought from probing through.

* * *

About an hour into the journey, Lucy noticed a flashing light come onto her console, and she knew what it as straight away. "Sir, I'm picking up a distress call on the scanners" she said, causing Kendall to glance over at her before he pulled himself up from his seat and made his way from the front of the console.

"Is it a text transmission or audible?"

"Audible sir, I'm putting it on speakers for us now sir" she replied, before a loud crackling sound played over the bridge.

"Elptaqme aqme aqme uzxiaqmeptylxgtor aqmeaqmeelpt, elpt gtoruzxi gtor fvot aqme gtoraqmeuzxielptelpt. Elpt gtoraqmegtor uzxielpt gtoruzxi elptaqme elpt elpt gtoruzxi aqmeaqme elptgtorgtorfvot" the voice said, complete with static, but while they didn't understand a word of what was said, the explosion at the end spoke for itself.

"I've traced the signal sir, we're about 5 minutes out at our current speed" Camille spoke up from the Conn console, causing Kendall to turn to her quickly.

"Then set a course, Ensign, and see if we can cut that time down a little bit." Kendall replied, before pressing on his insignia. "Doctor, we may have some incoming who are wounded, I hope you're ready"

"As ready as I can be without knowing anything about them sir" Logan replied, causing Kendall to nod not that the doctor could see.

"I've already alerted engineering, and they've prepared an emergency kit. They maybe able to stop it from blowing if we reach it in time" James added, causing Kendall to nod before he turned back to Lucy.

"I need you to send a transmission back saying we are on our way. They may not hear it, but if they do, at least they'll know to expect help" he said, causing her to nod as he began to walk back to his seat. "Let's go help some damsels, shall we?" the blond said to himself as he sat down, readying himself for whatever he was about to face.

When they arrived at the vessel, it was just floating out in space, and the first thing Kendall notice was the smoke shooting out of ship, causing it to rotate ever so slightly.

"James, make sure those engineers have mag-boots on. We don't need any of our people getting injured in zero-g" he said, before turning to Lucy. "Open a channel Lieutenant"

"Channel open sir" she replied, causing the blond to nod.

"This is Commander Kendall of the USS Diamond responding to your distress call. Is anyone alive over there?" he asked, causing the view screen to flash to life, a very weird looking alien appearing on it. The connection was a bit dodgy, probably from the damage on the alien's side, but Kendall could make out the pale purple skin complexion as well as the spikes that run from the middle of the alien's forehead, down what Kendall assumed to be a nose, and right to the bottom of his chin, where they disappeared under the alien's clothes. The blond assumed that they probably continued all the way down his body, but he certainly wasn't too fussed about finding out.

"Fvot gtor aqme uzxi ptylx elpt" the distorted picture spoke, causing Kendall to glance over at Lucy.

"The universal translator is just adapting now" she said, causing Kendall to nod as he returned his attention back to the alien.

"This is Commander Kendall, please say that again" the blond spoke, causing the alien to reply.

"fvot gtor aqme uzxi time elpt"

"Please repeat"

"Fvot I don't have time for this" the alien spoke again, causing Kendall to internally chuckle. "My ship is in need to assistance. My containment is minutes away from failing!" he continued, causing Kendall to nod.

"If you'll allow it, I can beam some people over so that they can help repair your ship" Kendall replied, causing the alien to nod, as he looked over to James, who nodded back at him. Before long, Kendall saw the people materialise behind the alien, who looked so relieved.

"Thank you, thank you so much kind sir!"

"Don't worry about it" Kendall replied with a smile.

"Sir, we've managed to contain the breach, but the ship is severely damaged" Crewman Stetson replied, causing Kendall to nod once again.

"If it's no trouble we could bring your ship aboard ours and take you back home"

"You would do that for me? A complete stranger?" the alien asked, causing Kendall to shrug.

"It's no trouble, it's what we do" Kendall replied, causing a smile to grace the aliens face.

"That's extremely kind of you. Thank you so much" the alien replied, causing Kendall to nod.

"No worries. We'll tow your ship into our shuttle bay and I'll get my top men to work on it" the blond said, causing the alien to nod before the transmission was cut off. "Chief, join me in the shuttle bay?" Kendall asked, causing James to push himself up from his station as they headed to the lift and down to greet the new visitor.

* * *

"Are you sure this is wise sir?" James asked as the two of them walked through the corridors towards the shuttle bay.

"If I'm being perfectly honest with you, probably not" Kendall replied, causing James to raise an eyebrow at him. "But it's also a great opportunity for us to learn about a local species and maybe gain some allies out here. Just think, the alien may be able to provide us with some information about the surrounding space, and when we return him home, they'll be indebted to us"

"So this is all a political play?" James replied, causing Kendall to blush slightly as he stuttered.

"I didn't mean it like that, just that it might help us out as well." He replied, and when he saw how James was looking at him, he didn't even think about it, as he swatted the chief on the chest. "You make me sound so heartless" he said, causing James to roll his eyes at him as they walked into the shuttle bay, where the small vessel as well as it's owner were waiting. "Welcome to the Diamond, I'm Commander Kendall Knight, the commanding officer and this is James Diamond, first officer and chief engineer" Kendall said, extending his hand out to the alien.

The alien looked down at it with offense at first, before slowly raising his hand and taking Kendall's into his own. "I'm Selubir Dlutog and I want to say thank you once again for rescuing me and my ship" he replied, shaking Kendall's hand, the blond noticing that his skin was more like scales than actual skin.

"Don't worry about it. If you'd like, we can take you to Sickbay to return any injuries that you have" Kendall asked, causing Selubir to nod.

"That would be great Commander thank you." He began, but when he heard the rustling of a few engineers, he suddenly became all paranoid. "If you don't mind Commander, I'd rather your engineers didn't work on my ship without me being around. It's just…we have a strict rule on our planet about sharing technology as well as some severe punishments if it's broken" he added, causing Kendall to nod.

"That's fine. I'll make sure this area is off limits until you return" he replied, before looking over at Stetson and his crew. The lot of them nodded at Kendall, before they began to walk away from the ship and out of the shuttle bay.

"Thank you, Commander."

"No worries. We have a similar law on our world, so I completely understand. Now, if you'll follow me" the blond asked, causing the alien to nod as he led the way.

James couldn't help but linger a little as he reviewed the alien ship for its damage. From the outside, the vessel looked perfectly intact and there was no sign of smoke pouring out of it.

Before he looked any more suspicious, the brunet followed Kendall and the alien out of the room as he pondered this new conundrum.

* * *

As they walked through the ship, James noticed how Selubir kept glancing around, looking at all of the control and access panels on the ship, and while the brunet knew it was completely natural for this alien to be curious, he couldn't help but be a little bit on edge, especially with the Diamond being his baby. Before the brunet had any cause to worry more, they finally arrived at Sickbay, where James noticed the security guard stood by the door on the inside wall, and it really helped settle his nerves.

He was sure that Selubir had noticed her as well, considering how his eyes flicked to her when he walked in, but considering that he didn't make a comment about it, James assumed he was fine with it. The brunet was snapped out of his thought when Kendall spoke up once again.

"Selubir, this is Dr Mitchell, our chief medical officer"

"Pleasure" Selubir replied, taking the hand that Logan had extended for him.

"Please, if you'll take a seat. I'll just run a scan to make sure that everything is in the right place" Logan said, causing the alien to nod as he pulled himself onto one of the beds. That's when James decided to get Kendall's attention.

"Commander, can I have a word with you outside a second?" he asked, causing Kendall to look at him with a raised eyebrow. When James just replied with a smile and a nod of his head, it seemed that Kendall finally got the message.

"Um, we'll be back in a minute" the blond said to the alien, causing him to nod back at the two men before they made their way outside. As soon as the door was shut, James began.

"Are you noticing anything…off about this guy?" he asked, causing Kendall to quirk an eyebrow at him again.

"Off?"

"Yeah off, like he's… I don't know, hiding something or something like that" James replied, causing Kendall to shrug.

"I'm guessing you have"

"Well, it's just a few things that don't make sense. Like, if his ship was as damaged as we were led to believe, then why doesn't we want us working on it? And, _and_ why was the exterior of it completely damage free when he claims to be attacked"

That caused Kendall to ponder a little bit, the blond rubbing his chin as he thought about it. "I mean, he told us why he doesn't want us in his ship, but I have to admit, the exterior damage thing is pretty interesting" he began, causing James to nod as he leaned against the opposite wall. "But then again, we don't know anything about the aliens that attacked him. Maybe they use electrical weapons that damage the ships computer. I mean, it would explain why he would still be suffering from a containment problem and why there was no exterior damage" Kendall replied as he rubbed his forehead. "I'm not saying that he should completely dismiss the issue, because I want us to work with each other, but I do think we need to be careful about how we approach this. I mean, it looks bad if we start investigating someone who we saved from a distress call" the blond continued, causing James to slowly nod back at him.

The blond was right, and maybe James was just being a little paranoid. Then again, he had a feeling in his gut and everything in his life had taught him to trust it. After thinking over the dilemma, James finally came up with a plan. "The shuttle bay automatically scans anything that passes under it, to make sure that we don't bring anything diseased or infectious aboard, so we could use those scans to look for anything out of the ordinary. That way, if we get caught, we could just say that we are following a procedure." The brunet replied, causing Kendall to slowly nod to the idea.

"That works, but I want the two of us to go over it later. We don't need the whole ship thinking this guy is the enemy. For the moment we keep it between us."

"Deal" James replied, giving Kendall a quick nod before he made his way back into the Sickbay, where Logan was typing away at the console.

"Well, our friend here had a few minor bruises, but it was nothing to serious" Logan said, alarm bells immediately going off in James' head. "Other than that, he's the healthiest person of his species that I've ever examined" he joked, causing Kendall to let out a soft chuckle.

"Perfect, thank you doctor" Kendall said, gaining a nod and smile from Logan before he turned his attention back to Selubir. "If you'll follow me, I've had you set up with some quarters. I can bet after the day you've had, you'll want to relax"

"That does sound nice Commander, thank you" Selubir responded, as he pushed himself off of the bed and walked over to Kendall. When the two of them began to leave the room, James seemed to linger slightly, causing Kendall to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You go ahead Commander, I just need to speak to the doctor for a second. Neck ache" James said, rubbing the back of his neck slightly, causing Kendall to just shake his head at the taller brunet before leaving, this time the security officer following them. As the door closed, James was quick to turn back to Logan, who was just staring at him.

"I've got a feeling this isn't about a neck ache" the doctor said, as he walked into his office, James on his heels.

"Good deduction doctor, I thought my brilliant acting would have fooled you" James replied sarcastically, causing Logan to roll his eyes at him. "Would I be able to have a copy of the scans you took from the alien?" he asked, causing Logan to raise an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sure you're familiar with doctor/patient confidentiality?" Logan replied, as he took a seat at his desk and loaded up his terminal.

"Yes, I am, but I really need them" James replied, causing Logan to roll his eyes again.

"Damn, why didn't I think of that"

"Oh stop being sarcastic" James retorted, causing Logan to straighten himself up slightly.

"Ok, let's just assume I do give you the scans, and I'm not saying this because I'm being spiteful, but I don't think you'll be able to decipher then. I mean, I have a doctorate in Xenobiology, and I could hardly do it myself. It'll take me at least a few hours to fully get a grasp on his physiology"

"That's why I need your notes on it as well" James said, with an overexaggerated smile while Logan just rolled his eyes once again. "Please doc come on, you know I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important"

"We've only known each other for about a week, I don't know that" Logan replied, causing James to let out a sigh.

"Please doc. Come on, I mean don't you find it curious that this guy called a distress call about how his ship was in critical damage, but then he only has a few bruises?" James asked, causing Logan to lean back in his chair, as he considered it. The silence that loomed over the two was causing James to tense up slightly and when Logan finally leaned forward, he was eager for the answer.

"How about this" he began, causing James' eyes to widen as the doctor continued. "I will review the data, and if, but only if, I find something that is completely bizarre will I forward my notes onto you. It's my best offer"

"Deal" James said quickly, extending his hand out for Logan to shake. While the doctor was sceptical, he still took James' hand and shook it.

"Deal"

* * *

While James was cutting a deal with the doctor, Kendall was currently walking Selubir to his ship, and ever since James had talked to him, the blond found himself slightly on edge. Trying his best to remain calm, the Commander began to speak. "So, I have to admit, I'm slightly curious about these aliens, what was it, the Wreisk?" he began, causing Selubir to nod. "See, we're kind of new to this region of space and any information that you could share about them would be really helpful"

"Of course Commander, anything I can do to help after how kind you've been to me" Selubir replied, causing Kendall to smile. "Well, they own this region of space, which extends for about 1400 light years-" _'About a nine months at our top speed'_ "-and they are extremely violent. They blockaded our home world years go and the only way we were able to survive was to cut a deal with them. They now own the space around our planet, and regulate our trading, while taking 90% of the cut."

"That's…um…wow" Kendall stuttered out, before regaining his composure. "And can I ask why they attacked you?"

"I was carrying contraband, Ilipa Berries. They used to be a luxury on our planet, but the Wreisk are allergic to them so they burned all of our supplies and farms. I was able to get some from a secret supplier on one of our colony worlds, but then I was caught in a random search and they found them" Selubir shrugged, causing me to nod. "I actually have some questions for you, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all" Kendall replied, his scepticism rapidly returning.

"I was wondering about your vessel, it's like nothing I've ever seen before"

"Well, we're not actually from this area of space" Kendall responded, causing Selubir's eyes to widen significantly. "It's a long story, but the basic gist is that we had a malfunction and we were transported 120,000 light years away from home"

"So you're all alone out here?" Selubir asked, causing Kendall to nod. "That must be pretty rough. At least your vessel seemed well armoured. The hull is what, 11 inches thick?" he continued, causing Kendall to raise an eyebrow at him

"That's pretty close actually. How'd you-"

"I was an engineer before I became a freighter captain. I have a knack for ships" he replied, causing Kendall to nod once again, his scepticism rising further. Even the blond didn't know that information off the top of his head, so it made him wonder how Selubir did.

 _'I've probably just let James too far into my head. He probably was just an engineer'_ Kendall thought to himself as they finally arrived at Selubir temporary quarters.

"So, this is where you'll be staying. If you need anything, there will be someone posted outside at all times, but you can also use the terminal in your room."

"Thank you once again Commander" Selubir replied, causing Kendall to nod as he finally left the room.

Once he was outside, he took a deep breath as he made his way back up to the bridge, a small part of his brain repeatedly telling him that James was right.

* * *

"There's nothing here that suggests that the ship was damaged"

"Well, from conventional weapons at least" Kendall replied, causing James to give him a little side eye.

"You still think these Wreisk may be using electric based weapons?" James asked, causing Kendall to shrug.

"I really don't know" the blond replied, leaning back against the sofa in his ready room. "What I do know is that Selubir said that they were extremely violent and therefore it's not entirely impossible. He said he was stopped from smuggling contraband, so for all we know, he could have been stopped using an electrical weapon that cut all his power, then when the Wreisk boarded and found the contraband, they shot another electrical pulse at the ship to make sure the job was finished, almost like an EMP on those old 21st century aircraft" he justified, causing James to let out a sigh as he leaned back as well.

"Maybe your right. Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid" the brunet began, causing Kendall to turn so that he was facing James.

"Can I ask why? I mean, I shared all my worries with you on the bridge this morning, maybe it's time you shared yours" the blond replied, causing James to let out a small chuckle and a nod as he turned so that he was facing Kendall, his legs crossed on the sofa.

"I don't know, it's probably the same thing you're thinking about. I mean, I spent years working on the Diamond, building her, making her the best ship in our quadrant and within hours of being put into service, she's thrown into a completely different quadrant where we don't know what we're up against" James sighed, shuffling slightly before he continued. "And I'm going to sound like a massive hypocrite after saying this but, I feel like I'm responsible for the crew as well" This caused a smirk to grow on Kendall's face as James continued. "I mean, I was one of the lead engineers on the ship, I was the one who helped design her, and I feel like if that design gets anyone killed, then that's also on me"

"Oh the joys of command" Kendall joked, causing James to chuckle slightly. "And I think we should make a pact now. If anything does happen, we promise to talk to each other about it. It's not healthy to keep all this stuff bottled up and by talking to each other, we'll go what we're going through" the blond said, extending his hand out.

"Deal" James replied, taking Kendall's hand into his own. The handshake seemed to linger for a few extra seconds, sparking flying between their fingers but they were interrupted when the computer terminal chimed, causing James to let go instantly as he shot up from the sofa. "That was the alert I set up for if anyone tried to get close to Selubir's ship" the brunet said, causing Kendall to jump up as well, walking over to the terminal that James was now working at.

"And, do you know who it is?"

"I'm pulling up the video feed now" James replied, and as it loaded up on the screen, their eyes widened at what they saw.

"That's…"

"Yep"

"And the ship is"

"Yep" James replied, knowing exactly what Kendall was trying to say. From what the computer monitor was showing, Selubir was currently sitting in the cockpit of his ship, which had somehow managed to attach itself to one of the interior pipes of the Diamond. "What the hell is he doing?"

"I don't know, but we should get down there. Let's see if we can reason with him first. It might just be a massive misunderstanding" Kendall replied, causing James to raise an eyebrow at him. "What, I'm trying to stay slightly optimistic" the blond continued, before the two of them sprinted out the other door into Kendall's office, so that they didn't alert the bridge crew, and into the lift. "Wait a second, if he's there, then…" Kendall began, before pressing his insignia. "Garcia, I think it's time to rotate the guard on Selubir's quarters. Can you send someone down to relieve Stewart"

"But her shift doesn't end for another hour"

"Please just do it for me" Kendall snapped slightly, causing James to give him a little bit of side eye.

"Of course, sorry sir" Carlos replied before the comms shut off and the lift doors opened. The two of them were brisk in their walk to the shuttle bay, but when they arrived, nothing was out of the ordinary, and the ship was exactly the way it was left. "Allen has taken over for Stewart Sir" Carlos' voice spoke up again.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Kendall replied, before turning to James. "Ok, so I want to know what the hell is going on. How did he get out of his quarters and back within a minute without Stewart noticing and what the hell was his ship doing with ours" Kendall commanded, as James glanced around.

"There is no sight that what we saw actually happened. It's…well, it's impossible"

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth Lieutenant, so get on it. I'll be on the bridge. Maybe they picked something up up there" Kendall replied, causing James to nod as the blond walked out the door.

"Let's get to work then Diamond" James mumbled to himself as he made his way over to the freighters door, sceptical about what he was going to find.

* * *

After Kendall had gotten to the bridge, and informed James that he had tightened security around Selubir's quarters, the brunet was quick to get to work. He was still slightly worried that Selubir would find him, despite the fact that security had been enhanced so time was truly of the essence.

After figuring out the manual release on the airlock, James was quick to climb aboard and the first thing he did was make his way down the cargo bay. If Selubir's story was true then surely it should be filled with trading goods, as well as the contraband that he was supposedly carrying, making that James' first goal. The ship was a bit of a maze for him to navigate at first, but as he walked, James noticed very little damage to the interior of the ship, well at least not to the level that was shown on the view screen when the distress call was first answered. In that ship, plasma conduits had exploded, and controls were struggling to maintain power, but from what James could see here, nothing was damaged and that did raise some suspicions.

When the brunet did eventually make his way into the cargo hold, he found what he had expected, that it was completely empty, with nothing in sight. In fact, James struggled to call it a cargo hold, considering that the space was limited as it is. If this ship was truly a freighter like suggested, then at least half the ship should be dedicated to the trade, and the space he was in certainly wasn't that, with James pushing it if he estimated that this took up about a sixth of the ship's size. With that being proof enough for the brunet, he was quick to make his way back up to the bridge, where he began to tap on what he assumed to be the main console.

Of course, the alien language flashed up with bright coloured letters and number dancing about on the screen, causing James to reach into his back pocket and pull out a little gadget that he had invented. The brunet had worked on ships long enough to know that a lot of the materials and programs are built in different places around the world and while English was the preferred language on Earth, he knew some of the factories still liked to print in their original language. This device, a pair of glasses essentially, worked similarly to the universal translator, allowing him to convert the languages into English so that he could read it. So, as the brunet interfaced with the console, he noticed how the colourful numbers and letter started to convert into the ones that he was familiar with.

"And we're golden" he said when everything was fully converted, allowing him to fully look over the console. Much like he expected, a lot of the console was dedicated to the ships systems, like engines, life support, weapons and whatnot, but there was also a few that were new to him. His glasses seemed to struggle with those slightly, James noticing how the word that represented it would change now and again. It started off at mirage, before flicking to illusion, then chimera and then finally back to mirage. Whatever the case was, each word meant a similar thing, and James also knew what he was going to find when he clicked onto the control panel next to the button.

Suddenly, he was greeted with a whole array of settings, which seemed to allow him to change how the ship looked. Keeping the same basic design, James could change it so that the interior of the ship looked like it was destroyed, badly damaged and even completely clean and pristine, as the brunet became in awe of it. If this were any other time, James could have spent hours messing around with this technology and trying to find out how it ticked, but alas, he knew he was on a time limit.

Instead, he took a scan of the console before moving onto the ship's data banks, where he found an array of species data. There seemed to be a list of at least 50 species here, and each file was filled with information about said species. As he neared the bottom, James finally noticed the one that had been spoken about a lot, the Wreisk, so obviously he clicked on it, being greeted with flood of text and images and the first thing he noticed was how similar the picture looked to Selubir. With his intrigue being peaked, James began to read the text about the species, noticing instantly how it was obviously written by someone else quite a while back.

 _'The Wreisk, also known as the Trickster Race. These Aliens are now in charge of over 100 light years of space due to their cunning, deviance and ability to gain superior technology. From what our scouts have told us, the Wreisk ambush their prey which allows them to have the upper hand. They first begin with a distress call, luring in an unsuspecting ship which only wants to offer aid'_ The passage began, and James couldn't help but roll his eyes at it, knowing that they had fallen for exactly the same trap. The brunet continued to read through the passage, noting how everything described what had happened to them, and as he neared the bottom, the next part of his story caught his eye.

 _'The Wreisk will ask to be taken back to their home world, but instead they will be lead to the ambush sight, usually an asteroid field, or a dead planet allowing their ally ships to hide. Once the unexpected ship has arrived, the hidden ships will launch their attack crippling the defence of the unexpected ship and allowing the Wreisk to board. From there, the crew will be taken prisoner or slaughter and the ship will be stripped for any useful parts.'_

 _'Fuck'_ James thought to myself as he pressed his insignia while downloading all of the information he could off of the Wreisk ship and onto his scanner.

* * *

"Commander come in!" James' voice boomed across the bridge, causing Kendall to turn to Lucy.

"Direct that to my ready room terminal for me please" the blond asked, causing Lucy to nod as Kendall walked into said room. As soon as he did, he spun his terminal around and answered the brunet. "What have you found chief?"

"We need to stop the ship right now"

"What?"

"We need to stop the ship right now, it's an ambush!" James' voice boomed through the ready room, causing Kendall to sprint out onto the bridge, everyone turning to turn and look at him.

"Roberts, full stop now!" Kendall basically yelled as he pointed at her, causing her to quickly nod as she dragged the thrust bars all the way down. Well, expect from the fact that they didn't move and instead made an error noise. "Now Ensign"

"I can't sir, it's not working, I've been locked out" Camille replied, causing Kendall to jog over to her. As the brunette pushed her chair out slightly, Kendall began to slide the bars down, seeing that they weren't moving.

"Computer, full stop" Kendall said, causing the same error noise to sound.

"Unable to execute command due to computer lockout"

"Override, Knight Kilo Echo November!" Kendall commanded, causing the same error noise to play.

"Clearance level not high enough to override command" the computer replied, causing Kendall to let out a frustrated sigh, before turning to Carlos. "Lieutenant, I want you to dispatch a full security team, and get into Selubir's quarters"

"On it sir!" Carlos replied, before he ran into the lift as Kendall pressed on his insignia.

"Chief, are you there?"

"Here sir, and engineering seems to be going nuts. No one can access the computer" James replied, causing Kendall to let out a sigh. "I'm sending Lieutenant Stone down to you now, and I need the pair of you to figure this out."

"On it Sir, and I've transferred all the data I collected onto your console" James replied, as Kendall looked over at the Asian girl who was already heading in the direction of the lift, Jo taking her place at operations.

"Perfect, Knight out" Kendall finished, before making his way over to the captain's seat.

"Sir, we're five minutes out from the home world system" Camille said, causing Kendall to nod.

"That means we have five minutes to figure this out" he mumbled under his breath as the console loaded up the information James had previously looked at.

* * *

It was only a few minutes later when the next call came through on the bridge. "Sir, Selubir's not here, and my two officers had no clue where he his" Carlos said, causing Kendall to let you a deep sigh.

"Understood Lieutenant. I need you back on the bridge stat. From what I can tell, we are heading right into an ambush and I need you on tactical."

"I'm already on my way sir" Carlos replied, causing a small smile to grace Kendall's face this time.

"Two minutes sir" Camille said almost instantly after, causing that smile to fall as Kendall pressed onto his insignia.

"Chief, how are we coming with breaking this lock out?" he asked, as the lift doors opened from behind him, signalling Carlos was back.

"It's a tough code to crack sir, but we are slowly making some progress."

"Well, we've got…" Kendall began, before looking at Camille, who was holding one finger up as well as dipping another up and down. "about one and half minutes until we arrive in this system, so do what you can and make it fast! Knight out" he finished, before turning back to Carlos.

"I've got my staff hunting the entire ship for the guy"

"And status of the weapons and shields?"

"Weapons are completely down, but it looks like James has gotten us about 10% of the shields up. It's not a lot, but it will buy us a little more time" Carlos replied, before Camille spoke up again.

"We are entering the system now sir" she said, causing the view screen to show a massive grey, rocky planet. Well, the planet wasn't massive per say, but they were just really close to it, but still.

"We've got 5 hostiles incoming" Jo announced as Kendall saw the ships emerge in front of them. That's when they heard a loud bang come from within the ship, along with a shaking causing them all to jump slightly.

"Make that six ships" Camille said, as Jo loaded up the read out on her console.

"Selubir was able to get to his shuttle, and he's blown open the shuttle bay doors so that he could get out. Emergency forcefield is in place and holding" Jo announced, before a beeping began to play. "And we're being hailed"

"On screen" Kendall commanded, pushing himself up from his chair as Selubir came into view.

"Ah Commander, it's so good to see you again" the chipper alien began, causing Kendall to let a low growl slip from his mouth. "You might as well give up now Commander, you can't win this. My override is unbreakable" he continued, causing Kendall to roll his eyes.

"And what, I just let you kill my crew?"

"Of course not Commander. Instead, you'll place you onto the world below. Everyone will be given a fair chance" Selubir replied, causing Kendall to shake his head.

"Sorry, but I don't make deals with murders" the blond replied, causing the alien to let out a dark chuckle.

"Then, it's death." He said, before cutting comms off completely.

"All six vessels are targeting us sir" Carlos said, before the ship began to shake. "And they've open fired" he continued, causing Kendall to rub his hands over his face once again.

"Lieutenant Garcia, keep me updated on the status on our shields, Taylor, I want you to scan their ships for any weaknesses. We may not have weapons now, but I want to be ready for when we do. Roberts, keep an eye on our engines. If Diamond can break the lockout on those before anything else, I need you to flash us out as soon as possible" he ordered, causing everyone to nod.

"Shields down to 8%" Carlos added, causing Kendall to nod, as he pressed against his insignia.

* * *

"Diamond, that minute was up three minutes ago, what have you got?" Kendall's voice boomed through engineering as James ran his hand through his hair.

"Nothing sir, we have nothing" he replied, letting out a frustrated sigh. "The lockout adapted to the system we used to get partial shields. Now, I have no clue how we can get rid of this thing."

"Just keep going at it Chief, but do it quickly. No one knows this ship better than you, and I know you can do it!" Kendall replied, causing James to nod as the comms were cut off.

"We've run every single encryption we can, and nothing had worked James, there is literally nothing we can do" Lucy said, as she slammed her hands down against a console. "We're screwed."

"About as screwed as a 21st Century vessel hit by an EMP" James muttered back, causing Lucy to raise an eyebrow at it.

"This isn't the time for a history lesson" she replied, causing a light bulb to go off above James' head.

"Or maybe it is. Maybe, we need to go back to basics!" James enthused, as he made his way over to the console Lucy was working at.

"I feel like you've got something" she said, causing the brunet to shrug.

"I have like, half a plan and I don't even know if that half will actually work"

"It's better than nothing, lay it on me" she said, causing James to nod as he launched into his speech.

"The problem is that this lockout is coming from the computer core instead of going to it, meaning that it's using the ship's computer to help it adapt itself. So, we need to focus all of our attacks on the computer core"

"Yes, but with the lockout, we can't even get into the computer core systems, it all locked out"

"Hence why we need to do a cold restart" James said, causing Lucy's eyes to widen.

"You want to do a cold restart this close to a a planet?" Lucy asked, causing James to nod.

"Um, what the hell is a cold restart?" Jett asked, causing the two of them to turn to him.

"It's madness" "It's our only hope" Lucy and James said at the same time respectively, causing Jett to raise his eyebrow once again.

"We're going to cut power to the entire ship, turn the whole thing off, and restore her to her factory settings" James said, as he made his way through the engineering department.

"Ok, I'm with Lucy on this one. That's crazy. We're too close to the planet and as soon as the power drops, everything will go. We'll start to free fall towards the planet, we'll lose gravity on the ship, and we'll be defenceless"

"And it will take at least two minutes for the entire ship to restart itself, we won't survive it"

"Trust me, we'll survive it" James said, as he pulled a panel off of the wall on the left side of the flash drive. "Lucy, get to the panel on the right, and Jett, get to the panel in front of the drive" he said, and when they just stood there, he knew what he needed to go. "That's an order!" he shouted at the two of them, causing them to jump before they both ran off. As he watched them do that, he pressed his insignia down, opening a comm channel to the bridge. "Kendall, we've got something. We're going to do a cold restart" he said, and he could hear the shocked gasp that Kendall let slip.

"Ok, if you sure it's the only think that will work. I trust your judgement"

"I do" James replied, before cutting the comms once again and turning to Lucy and Jett. "On three, pull the lever right down. One…two…three!" he shouted, causing them all to yank their corresponding levers straight down. As soon as they did, the whole of the engineering department went dark and James could already feel the weightlessness take over him as he slowly began to rise off of the floor.

Then, though the darkness, a blinding light appeared causing a smile to do the same thing on James' face as he made his way over to the console which was now showing yellow text. The process was difficult enough when he was trying to do it in zero gravity, but it also didn't help that the ship was still being shot at. Each impact caused them to rock from side to side, making it more difficult for James to reach their only hope. Eventually, the brunet was able to grab hold of one of the railing along the wall, and used that to hoist himself to where he needed to be.

 _'Restore to Factory Settings?'_ The console showed as it provided James with two options, _Y/N_ and a qwerty keyboard.

"Everyone hold on" James spoke through the darkness as he reached for the third option, _J_. The brunet was quick to press the button, and as soon as he did, everything in Engineering lit up once again, restoring itself to its original settings almost immediately.

In the minutes following, James heard everyone drop to the ground, causing the brunet to let out a chuckle as he pushed himself off the floor.

* * *

"I do" James said, before the comms cut out, leaving Kendall and everyone on the bridge in a state of shock.

"What's a cold restart" Jo asked, causing Kendall to sit back down in the captain's seat.

"It means everything is about to get real bumpy. I suggest we all buckle up" the blond replied, grabbing the strap and securing himself in. The bridge was filled with the sound of the clicking of belts, and just as the last one sounded, all the lights went out.

"What the hell?" he heard Camille asked, causing him to chuckle slightly.

"I need you all to keep an eye on our consoles. As soon as they power back up, we need thrusters on, and shield up" the blond spoke, as they all jolted in their seats from a beam impact.

"I'm still confused by what has happened" Camille said, causing Kendall to let out a soft chuckle before another beam volley hit the ship, jolting them once again. This time, Kendall could hear the explosion it caused so he knew that they were trying to target the bridge.

"He's turned the whole ship off and is restoring it to Factory default settings."

"Surely, that's going to take minutes" Camille replied, and just as she was finished, the ship was overcome with a familiar whirring as all the consoles came back to life.

"Ensign, thrusters, Lieutenant shields!" Kendall ordered once again, causing the two of them to rapidly move as they completely their objectives.

"Engines are up and running, and we are…20km away from the planets surface"

"Shields and weapons are online."

"Open fire Lieutenant! Taylor, did you manage to identify any weaknesses?" Kendall asked, looking over at the blonde girl behind ops.

"There's one right by their deflector, where all the ships power conduits converge. If we get a perfect shot, we'll short their whole ships, disabling them"

"Good, we don't need to put a bigger target on our backs for killing them" Kendall replied, causing Jo to tap at her console, transferring the data to Carlos. "Now, let's test out these Mark Ten beams, shall we?" he asked, and his answer was the sight of the beams on the view screen striking exactly where Jo had pinpointed on one of the ships, causing it to shut down. "Nice shot Lieutenant!" Kendall exclaimed, causing a grin to grow on Carlos' face before the ship rocked again.

"They've focused fire on one part of our shields!"

"Roberts, evasive manoeuvres!" Kendall ordered, causing Camille to nod, as she turned the ship hard to the left, before flying under the remaining enemy ships. Carlos was quick to take advantage of the situation, locking in all five targets and firing at once, causing 5 different beams to shoot from the ship, hitting exactly where they needed to.

"All ships are disabled sir!" he enthused, but the victory was short lived when a dark voice boomed over the bridge once again.

"You haven't won yet Commander. Epko, Lzik, Fgah" Selubir said, causing Carlos' console to begin beeping quite loud.

"Sir, I'm detecting six massive energy build ups from the ships" he said, causing Kendall's head to instantly turn back to Camille.

"Get us out of here Ensign!" he commanded, causing her to nod as she threw the thrust bars all the way forward. Watching on the view screen, the Diamond shot forward when one explosion was heard. Kendall was quick to make the view screen show the rear of the ship where the rest of the ships exploded, combining in this huge shock wave, one that Kendall watched get closer and closer, causing his nerves to rise. Just as the shock wave was about the hit the rear shield, the ship jumped to flash, causing everyone to let out a sigh.

"We did it" Kendall breathed out, causing a few chuckles to occur on the bridge.

"Indeed, we did sir" Camille replied, flashing Kendall a small smile before returning her attention back to her console where she wiped off the sweat that had formed on her brow.

"Um, we're not out of the woods yet sir" Jo spoke up, causing Kendall's head to lull back slightly before he turned to the blonde girl.

* * *

"Commander's log, Stardate 62558.78034. After a stressful day dealing with a race we now know as the Wreisk, Ensign Taylor decided to deliver some disappointing news. It seems that before the Wreisk ships blew up, they were able to send out one last transmission, giving their entire species an image of our ship, as well as our course home, which entails us travelling through nine months' worth of their space" Kendall began, letting out a sigh.

"Because of a foolish error that I made, we will be facing challenges like this on a regular basis for basically the next year of our lives. The crew have been informed of our situation, and while they don't seem too disgruntled about it now, I question how morale will be six months down the line. I suppose the silver lining to this all, is the data that Chief Diamond was able to get off of the Wreisk ship. It has provided us with a detailed map of their space, and even the location of some of their major fleets, so we have made course corrections to ensure that we don't go nowhere near those. We also have a detailed list of all the species in this area of space, so we have a better understanding of who can trust or not. The basic gist of that by the way, is that we can trust everyone but the Wreisk." The blond was interrupted when his door chimed, and he couldn't stop the smile that grew on his face.

"Computer end log." Kendall said, before straightening himself out as he walked to the door. As he pressed the button to open it, it was revealed that James was stood there with a six pack of beers. "Are you always going to come to my room with alcohol chief?" Kendall teased as he let James in.

"Only on the shit days, commander" he teased back, as he placed the pack onto the table and pulled out two cans, throwing one to Kendall.

"Well, today has been particularly shitty. I mean, look at this" Kendall began, as he walked over to his sofa and grabbed the tablet from it. "Jefferson, broken elbow. Michael, broken nose. Emerson, third degree burns. Peterson, laceration on his left leg. Hopkins, fractured pelvis _and_ a sprained wrist"

"Ok, I think I get the idea" James replied, pulling the tablet from Kendall's hand, and throwing it onto the floor. "But if I'm not mistaken, there were no casualties, so we didn't lose anyone"

"True, but still, some of this stuff is pretty serious James, and again, I was the reason that we were in the situation" the blond replied, causing James to let out a small laugh.

"Damn, you really are tough on yourself aren't you" he began, causing Kendall to shrug. "None of this stuff is your fault Kendall. You did what was right, and what anyone would have done in that situation. Damn, even I would have answered that distress call and helped the guy, no matter how shady he was because it's the right thing to do" He continued, causing Kendall to turn and look at him. "Besides, it's my fault anyway. I should have put better security on the computer system"

That caused a small chuckle to work it's way out of Kendall. "Damn, we truly are a pair aren't we?" the blond replied, causing James to turn so he was now facing the blond.

"We really are" he replied, the two of them now locking eyes once again, and this time, there was nothing around to distract them. The two of them found themselves shuffling closer on impulse, and before Kendall could even put down the beer can, he felt James' lips on his own. The blond gasped into the kiss, as he wrapped his arms around James' neck and pulled him down so that the two of them were now laid on the sofa, with James hovering over the blond.

In that moment, all the stress of that day was gone, and that's all Kendall needed in that moment.

* * *

 **So there we have it! We have the introduction of a new alien species, the Wreisk, and we also had a little bit of Kames at the end of the chapter to round it all off!**

 **I want to say a massive thank you to Guest, Winterschild11, RainbowDiamonds, EpicallyObsessed and TheLoganTrain for reviewing the last chapter and I'm so glad to see that you enjoyed it! I'm also going to guess that you really enjoyed the Kames that was scattered throughout this chapter, as many of you said that you really enjoyed the hint at it last time!**

 **Anyway, I am super tired at this point so I am going to sign off here. I will see you on Monday for the next chapter of Class Vs Character, hopefully, but until then,**

 **TTFN 😃🚀**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi Guys and welcome back to The New Frontier! I've been working on this chapter for about a week now, so I'm excited to finally share it with you! Also, disclaimer, I am not a doctor, shocker, so the technical stuff in this story might be way off. If it is, then I apologise now 😂😂 Anyway, let's crack on!**

* * *

"Commander's log Stardate 62707.9834. We've been travelling for two months through Wreisk space, and the Diamond and the crew are still going strong. For the first few weeks, attacks on the Diamond were common but not as threatening as our first encounter with them, so we have been able to hold our own pretty well. The four weeks or so, their attacks have become less common but each time they attack, it's more coordinated and has been posing us some problems. Dr Mitchell has been brilliant at patching up our wounded, meaning that we haven't lost anyone from the attacks, and the engineering department have also been brilliant in repairing the ship with our recovery times being reduced significant due to James'…I mean Chief Diamond's tutelage. Lucy is constantly monitoring for Wreisk ships, and the rest of the bridge crew is always ready in case any decide to attack. The area of space has provided everyone with some adventures as well, as we have run into a few space phenomena that have never been seen before and we have also found some more new elements to add to our periodic table, which is helping to boost the crew's morale. It seems that everyone has now become better accustom to our situation and now we are all just doing our best to survive. Computer end log" Kendall said as he let out a sigh while sitting on the edge of his bed. Rubbing his forehead, the blond continued to speak, knowing that while no-one or nothing was listening, he needed to get it off of his chest.

"It's also been about two months since the kiss that James and I shared and even though I was the one to call it off, I can't stop thinking about it and him" he continued, now laying on the bed. "I mean, it was too soon after my break up and I can't be sure that I'm not just using him for a rebound. Plus, if I was, it would make things massively awkward between us and that could interfere with our actions on the bridge. But, like I said, I can't stop thinking about him, and no matter how cool and understanding he was when I called it off, I know that I hurt him, which is making me feel bad as well." Rubbing a hand over his face, he continued. "Still, I made the right choice. I mean, I can't let my personal feelings get in the way of getting everyone else home, no matter how much I like him, and it's against UEF protocol for a commanding officer to date one of their crew members…not that that makes me want to do it any less." The blond finished, letting out a sigh before pulling himself up the bed to the pillows, where he made himself comfortable.

Hopefully the flurry of thoughts wouldn't stop him from getting a good night's sleep.

* * *

"Hey, can you hold the lift!" Kendall heard as the lift doors began to close, causing him to shove his arm in between them. The lift instantly recognised this, and the doors began to open again, revealing the person who had asked, James. "Thank you, Commander," James said as he got into the lift, before messing with his hair slightly to try and put it into place. Kendall couldn't help but think back to their session on the couch, where Kendall had run his hands through James' hair, remembering how soft and thick it was to the touch.

"Err, no worries Chief" Kendall replied with a bit of a stutter, one that was only noticeable if you were looking out for it. Little did Kendall know that James was. "So, you're on the bridge today?" the blond asked, trying to continue the conversation, causing a smile on James' face to grow.

"Yeah, with the attacks from the Wreisk, we're slowly running low on materials, so I thought it might be best if I came up today to see if any of the planet we are passing will have them." The brunet replied, still messing with his hair slightly as he moved his fringe over to the side.

"Ah ok" Kendall replied, before the lift fell into silence, one that Kendall couldn't help but think that was awkward. Taking a deep breath, he began. "So, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I hurt you with what I said about two month ago."

"Kendall, it's fine, honestly I understand"

"I know but still. It's just that, I'm still not over my ex and I didn't want you to be a rebound" Kendall continued, causing James to shake his head.

"Seriously Kendall, I understand completely, you don't need to explain." James replied, as they felt the lift slot into the place at the bridge. Before the doors opened, however, James quickly added. "Besides, I'm taking it as a compliment that I'm too good to be your rebound guy"

Once he had finished, the lift door shot open, causing James to walk onto the bridge almost as if their conversation didn't happen. Kendall however was slightly red with blush, causing him to shake his head, as if that would get rid of the blush, before he walked on.

"Status report, Lieutenant" he began, as he turned and looked over at Lucy, who was tapping away at her console.

"Night staff reported nothing out of the ordinary" she began, causing Kendall to nod as he looked over to Camille.

"Any change Ensign?"

"Crewman Markus made a few changes to our course to avoid a nebula and a Wreisk fleet, but that was about it. We're still on course for Earth" she replied, causing Kendall to nod once again as he made his way over to the captain's seat.

"And lieutenant Garcia, any changes?"

"Nothing sir. We still have 30 torpedoes, and beams are at full charge" Carlos replied, giving Kendall a small smile before the blond pressed onto his insignia.

"Doctor, any updates"

"Nothing too severe. A couple of bumps and bruises and one broken arm but that's about it"

"Perfect thank you Doctor" Kendall replied, before cutting the comms. "Well then, Ensign Roberts, maintain our course and heading. Lieutenant Stone keep an eye out for any Wreisk Vessels. It's been a while since we've seen them, be wary. Lieutenant Garcia, run a drill of our security response. I don't when the last one we did was, and we can never be too prepared" He ordered, causing everyone to nod as they did what he said.

Taking one last glance over at James, he could see that the brunet was completely engrossed in his work, and that brought a small smile to Kendall's face.

* * *

It was about two hours into their shift when Lucy found something on the sensors, something that confused her massively. "Uh, Sir, I've got…err…something" she said, causing Kendall to turn to her with his eyebrow raised.

"Can you be a little more specific lieutenant?" he asked as he pulled himself from his chair, making his way over to the operations station. He could tell that everyone on the bridge was listening in to what she had said despite how much they were all trying to hide it, and that causing a small smirk to grow on his face. As he stood in front of the console, opposite to Lucy, she began again.

"Well, there's a planet on our sensors which is sprawling with cities, villages and everything in between, but the whole planet is completely uninhabited" she replied, showing Kendall the sensor data.

"That is curious, do you…" was as far as the blond got before the console started to bleep at the two of them. Lucy was quick to get to work, analysing the signal as Kendall began to speak again. "Any idea what that is Lieutenant?"

"It's a small cluster of life signs, but they are very weak sir. I've also found some debris orbiting the planet. And, it was once flash capable"

"So we won't be breaking the Central Mandate" Kendall mumbled, causing Lucy to nod as he turned towards Camille. "Ok, Ensign Roberts, set a course for that planet. Lucy, you're with me" He began, causing the two of them to nod as he pressed on his insignia. "Doctor, I need you and one of your nurses to meet us in the transporter room with an emergency kit"

"On it sir, we'll be there shortly"

"We're two minutes out" Camille added, causing Kendall to nod.

"Come on" he said, nudging his head towards both Lucy, and James that was looking at them. "Walk us down Chief?" he asked, causing James to nod as the three of them made their way into the lift, and began to head to their location. Once they were on the right deck, Kendall spoke up again. "Chief, you're in charge while I'm gone. Make sure to run constant scans of the area. We don't know what caused this to happen and if it was someone they might still be out there."

"We'll keep an eye out sir" James replied as they stepped into the transporter room, Logan and the nurse waiting.

"Commander, this is nurse Zevon, he's one of my best" Logan stated, causing Kendall to give the two of them a nod as he smiled.

"Pleasure"

"And we also have the emergency kit with us. This should be enough to stabilise them, but if their life signs are weak, then we'll need to get them back to the ship as soon as possible" Logan continued, causing Kendall to nod as he got onto the transporter pad.

"Then let's get to it" he replied, causing everyone to follow, stepping onto the pad themselves as James stepped behind the consoles.

"I'm putting you down as close to the life signs as I can. Oh, and take these!" he began, throwing a set of glasses Kendall's way. "They'll help you translate any consoles you find on the planet" He said, causing them all to nod once more as he began to slide his fingers across the console, initiating the transport. "And be careful" he added in the last few seconds before they were dematerialised. Once the pad was clear, James let out a sigh of nerves before making his way back up to the bridge.

After the last two months, they needed a win like helping someone.

* * *

As the away team rematerialised on the planet, they were all shocked with what they were greeted with. The planet was beautiful, the city awe inspiring with it's towering skyscrapers, visible monorail system and luscious trees and plants that lined the sidewalk.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this" Logan mumbled to himself as he pulled out his handheld scanner and proceeded to take a reading.

"I know, it's almost creepy" Lucy added as she followed suit, pulling out her own scanner. As Kendall tried to suppress a chuckle at his colleagues' observations, he spoke up.

"No matter how creepy this is, we have a job to do. Doctor, have you located the life signs?" he asked, causing Logan to nod from beside him.

"They are about 3 blocks in…that direction" he replied, spinning around so that he was facing the right way.

"Well, let's get too it. And keep an eye out, we don't need anything jumping out at us" Kendall ordered causing them all to nod as they began to walk, with Logan at the front. Walking at the back, Kendall pressed on his insignia in order to confirm their arrival, but instead he was met with a disapproving buzz. Raising an eyebrow, he pressed on his insignia again, causing the same noise to play. "Lieutenant, can you get in touch with the ship?" he asked, turning to Lucy who in turn pressed on her insignia. When the same disapproving buzz played, everyone in the group seemed to stop walking as they turned to Kendall.

"I can't get through either" Dak replied, pressing onto his own insignia causing the same noise to play.

"So, no one can get through to the ship? We're stuck here?" Lucy asked.

"Whether we're stuck here or not, we still have a job to do. We came down here to help those people, and we need to go through on our word" Logan responded, causing Kendall to nod.

"Logan's right. We can focus on getting through to the ship later, but now we need to help these people. Once they are stabilised, we can try to figure out what is going on but for now, we need to stick to the mission. Logan, lead the way" Kendall stated, causing them all to nod as they all began to follow the doctor again.

As they did, something unsettling settled in Kendall's stomach, especially due to the eeriness of the planet they were on, but he tried to push that aside as he focused on the people that he would be helping.

* * *

"Sir, we've lost both communication and our lock on the away team" was the sentence James was greeted too as he walked onto the bridge.

"We've lost…what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Jo, who had told him the information.

"Both communications and our lock on the away team have been lost. It seems as soon as they were transported down, a storm appeared over them" she replied, causing James to walk down to the console in between the captain's and first officer's seat. With the console loaded, he pulled up an image of the planet, more specifically the city where the away team where, and as he looked down upon it, he saw no signs of a storm in the atmosphere.

"Are you sure it's a storm?" he asked, turning his head to Jo.

"That's what the sensors are showing" she replied, causing James to shake his head slightly in confusion.

"Visual images aren't showing anything of the sort. Keep an eye out for me Ensign, I feel like this whole situation is about to get a lot weirder." he ordered, causing her to nod. "Lieutenant Garcia, I need you to keep the ships weapons and shields up and ready at all times. I'm not sure what to expect, so we can't be too prepared. Ensign Roberts be ready to get us out of here at a moment notice." he continued, causing both Camille and Carlos to nod. "As for me, I'm going to try and figure out a way for us to cut through this interference. Ensign Taylor, you up for the challenge?"

"Absolutely sir" she replied, causing James to give her a smile as he approached the operations station where she was working. As the two of them got to work, James couldn't help but worry for Kendall and the rest of the away team. He had no way to contact them, or to get them out of danger quickly resulting in him gaining an obscene amount of stress.

 _'_ _Stay Safe'_ he thought to himself, knowing he was saying that to one person in particular.

* * *

"This is it sir, this is the building" Logan said as they stood outside what appeared to be a monorail station. "The scanner is showing about 4 very weak life signs, we best get in there" he continued, causing them all to nod as Kendall began to lead the way. The whole walk Kendall had noticed how the whole planet was still in pristine condition, apart from the lack of people, and continued here. The doors opened flawlessly when he pushed against them, and as he walked in, he noticed how completely clean the place was, almost like it had been done moments before they had walked in.

The only thing that seemed to signal the decay the planet was facing was the fact that none of the informational screens were on, which Kendall presumed was due to the fact that the energy systems on the planet had failed. As the four of them continued to walk through the station, they all continued to collect data on the area, their suspicions growing further and further.

"The life signs are apparently by the tracks sir. Maybe they tried to use to monorail to escape, but they didn't get very far?" Dak question, causing them all to shrug as they made their way onto one of the platforms. As expected, the monorail was sat in the station, still in a completely pristine fashion but now they all became perplexed as they looked around for the life signs. There was nobody on the platform, with the place being completely spotless and yet, their scanners were going off like crazy.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Kendall asked, turning to Logan, who was currently tapping the side of his scanner.

"Positive sir. The readings are showing that they are on the platform. Maybe we should check inside the monorail? The metal might be deflecting the scan slightly" the doctor theorised, Kendall raising an eyebrow at him before turning back around and walking towards the monorail itself. He glanced through the windows as he walked, checking to see if he could spot anyone briefly, but he had no such luck.

Instead, he headed for one of the doors, as he readied himself to pry them open. The blond noticed how Dak and Logan were giving him some space to work, but at the same time, he also noted how close they were, ready to get straight into action if need be, and that caused him to gain a small burst of energy as the gripped onto the seal in between the two doors. Using most of his muscles, the blond was able to prise the doors opened, and as soon as they locked into place, he was quick to step onto the carriage.

That's when he noticed the device.

Sat at the edge of the carriage was a green and black patterned elliptical device, which was slowly pulsing.

"There's a device in here, you should stay back. Any signs of the life signs?" he called out, as he slowly approached the device pulling his own scanner out of it's holder.

"Negative sir. When the doors were opened, the signals increased but we still can't pinpoint them." Logan replied, watching as Dak now took a step into the carriage as well, about 10 metres back from Kendall.

"I think I know why that is" Kendall replied, as he opened his scanner up. When Kendall pressed onto his scanner, he could hear that the device began to make a whirring sound, almost like it was charging up. It took the blond a second to realise this, but as he did, it was too late, the elliptical device sent out a wave of energy throwing Kendall about 15 metres back, where he slammed into Dak, taking the nurse with him a short distance.

Luckily for them, they were both dazed but not unconscious as Logan and Lucy ran to their side.

* * *

"I'm seriously so confused" Jo began, as she lent forward on the console in frustration. "We can't isolate the storm on our sensors, even though it's showing that it exists, yet our visual images also show that it doesn't exist. If the storm isn't real, then why can't we lock onto or communicate with our team?" she asked, as James continued to work on the console behind her. "Are we missing something? Is something generating this storm for our sensors?"

"If that were true, then we'd be able to detect an energy signature"

"What if it's cloaked?"

"Even if that were true, we'd still be able to pick it up. With no other energy signatures on the planet, the ship would be able to pick up the faintest one" James replied and just as he spoke, a small blip appeared on the scanners. It lasted about a fifth of a second, but it was enough for them to quickly spot it.

"A power signature?" she asked, as James went back to focus on the blip.

"I'm not sure. It definitely generated energy, but it's not enough to power something that would interfere with our communication and transporters. For all we know, it could just be a light quickly flicking on and off" James replied, causing her to let out a disheartened sigh.

"So, we're no closer" she stated, causing James to shake his head.

"Not true, if anything that's given us something to work with. Our scanner can't get through the atmosphere but that little spec of whatever did. If we can analyse that, then we may be able to find a way to get through as well" the chief replied, causing a small smile to grow on her face.

"Let's get back to work then."

* * *

"Are you ok? Does anything hurt?" Logan asked, straight at Kendall's side as he pushed himself up off the floor.

"Nothing too serious" Kendall replied, as Logan began to run a medical scan on him, which didn't show anything of significance.

"What the hell was that?" Lucy asked, as she helped Dak up off the floor.

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it's dead now" the commander replied, turning to the device to see that it was completely deactivated. The green on the device had disappeared, leaving only the black marking on it.

"The life signs have gone" Logan added, causing everyone to turn to him. "As soon as the device sent out that wave of energy, they dropped off the scanner. Whatever that this was, it was generating fake life signs to draw people in"

"Then we should probably stay…" was as far as Kendall got before he erupted into a chesty cough.

With one hand over his chest, and another covering his mouth, the blond rested against the side of the carriage as he struggled to gain his breath, coughing constantly. Logan was quick to help Kendall sit down on one of the chairs in the monorail, not that it was much help as the coughing continued, and when he offered the blond a drink of water, Kendall couldn't even swallow the liquid due to the intensity of the fit. Instead, the water was spat back out instantly, narrowly missing Logan as Kendall began to gasp for air in between his coughs.

"Doctor do something!" Lucy said, quickly by Logan's side as he rummaged through the emergency bag.

"I'm trying, but there's not a lot I can do considering I don't know what's caused this!" Logan snapped back, causing Lucy to hold her hands up in surrender. That's when the sound of Kendall coughing stopped, and when Logan looked over to the blond, he'd noticed that he was now slumped back in his seat. "Shit!" Logan shouted as he stood up and pulled Kendall forward in the seat while scanning him. "He's lost consciousness, probably due to his brain not getting enough oxygen" he began, before turning to Lucy once again. "Any luck contacting the ship?" he asked her, causing her to press on her insignia.

When the received the same usual disapproving buzzer, Logan rubbed his hand over his forehead before continuing. "Lucy, I need you to scan the local area of a hospital. Our hand scanners aren't showing anything wrong with the commander, so maybe the hospital will have better equipment. Dak, I need your help carrying Kendall. That way if he does gain consciousness again, we can be quick to try and stop the coughing fit from starting again" he commanded, causing the two of them to nod.

"According to my scanner, there's a hospital about 10 minutes away"

"It's not ideal but it'll have to do" Logan replied, causing them both to nod.

Hoisting Kendall up from the seat, and taking one of his arms over their shoulders, Dak and Logan began to follow Lucy in the direction of the hospital. The whole walk they could tell that Kendall was still breathing, which was helping to calm Logan's nerves slightly, but he was still on edge due to the uncertainty of the situation.

He was uncertain as to what caused this coughing fit, although one idea did keep replaying in his mind, he was unsure as to whether anyone else was affected with it, especially due to the fact that he couldn't scan for it, and he was unsure as to whether the hospital would even have the equipment he needed. The planet itself looked technologically advanced, and the debris orbiting the planet showing that the alien species that one inhabited it were flash capable but that didn't mean anything for their medical prowess.

There was also another thing that he was uncertain about, and that was what had happened to everyone who lived on this planet. After the device had gone off, the life signs have completely disappeared from the scanner, meaning that they were completely alone down here, so what happened to everyone? Were they infected with the same thing that Kendall was and even they couldn't cure it? Logan shuddered at the thought and instead pushed it aside as he focused on getting Kendall to the hospital, where his chance of survival would be highest.

Not that pushing it aside made any difference however, as his mind was now raging with that concept. It would explain why the planet was still in a pristine condition, but it also made him wonder how the disease could have infected everyone considering those devices weren't on every street corner.

"Fuck."

It finally dawned on Logan. "We need to get to the hospital now"

* * *

When they finally approached the hospital, it was the first time that Logan actually saw something that he expected. The outside of the building seemed to be littered with skeletons and corpses, showing that everyone had the same response to the outbreak and ran here for help. There were also body bags about, showing that some of the dead were properly treated but he expected that his happened before the actual disease outbreak.

"There looks like there's thousands of them" Lucy spoke up first, her voice filled with sorrow and disgust at what she was witnessing.

"I know, but we need to stay focused. If we're not careful, the commander could end up like this" Logan replied, causing both Dak and Lucy to nod as they began to navigate a path towards the hospital's main doors.

"How long ago do you think this happened?" Lucy spoke up again, reluctantly moving a corpse out of the way so that it would clear a path.

"You want me to be honest? Somewhere between a week and a month" Logan replied, causing her to gasp.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Well, the human body that is left out in the open will be eaten by maggots within a week…"

"Ok, I think I've heard enough" Lucy added, moving another corpse out of the way, so that they finally had a clear back to do the door.

When the three of them finally reached it, Dak and Logan placed Kendall down onto the floor, allowing their shoulders some rest as they gathered their thoughts. "I'm guessing this was an automatic door, which means that there should be an automatic release somewhere" Lucy began, and as she looked around, Dak began to tend to Kendall, making sure that the blond was still breathing.

As Dak placed his hand onto Kendall's neck to find a pulse, he felt a hand grab around his wrist, and for a brief second, he was thrown into shock until he released that the commander was awake. As soon as that happened however, Kendall began to uninterruptedly cough again, this time with little specks of dark blood coming up as well.

"Doctor, we have a problem" Dak spoke up, as he tried to treat Kendall the best he could while Logan made his way over to him. As Logan saw the same thing that Dak did, the doctor's face paled and he was quick to turn back to Lucy.

"Any luck with the door Lieutenant?" he asked quickly, causing Lucy to shake her head.

"Nothing sir, there's no manual release" she replied, causing Logan to pull himself up from the ground.

"Time for another plan then" Logan responded, pulling out his veteron pistol and cranking up the setting before firing at the door. As soon as the beam hit the object, it dissolves into dust, but they had little time to celebrate as they picked Kendall back up again, this time the blond continuously coughing up blood as they did so. "We need to find the closest practise room! Stat!" Logan ordered, causing them all to nod as they made their way down the hospital corridors.

The place looked like it was going to star in a horror film, with gurneys and trolleys on their sides as well as corpses and skeletons littering the halls, showing the frantic nature of this species in their last few moments. Lucy was the first person to find a suitable room, with her kicking the door open to reveal what looked like an ICU room, something that Logan was grateful to see for the first time.

"Quick, help me put Kendall on the bed!" Logan commanded, as all three of them lifted the blond, who was still coughing up blood. "Lucy, I need you to try and get in contact with the ship. The longer we stay here, the worse it'll get. Dak, you're in charge of Kendall. I'm going to try and find out what this thing is, and if the species before us knew anything about it" Logan replied, causing them both to nod as they got to work.

Turning towards the consoles in the room, Logan cracked his knuckles before he tried to get to work. One tap on the console showed that they had also lost power, something that the brunet should have anticipated, but he was quick to remedy the situation, using the power supply from this scanner to power it. The console sprang to life, instantly in an alien language, causing him to turn back to Dak.

"Pass me those glasses that the chief handed the commander earlier" he ordered, with one hand out, causing Dak to quickly pat down the blond. When he found the glasses, he was quick to pass them over to Logan, the brunet slotting them over his eyes as soon as he had hold of them. The doctor witnesses as the alien signs and symbols flurried around as the device tried to translate them and after about thirty seconds, Logan finally began to understand what the console was showing.

With his understanding restored, he was quick to navigate around the network, but it wasn't difficult for him to find the information that he needed since it was the most recently documented thing.

"Nocma Contuses" Logan mumbled out loud to himself as he read what the previous species had dubbed the disease. It didn't have any direct translation into English but the closest he got was 'dry cough.' When the brunet heard Kendall cough from behind him, as well as the splatter of blood onto the ground, he knew that he needed to focus again, continuing to drive through the data. A lot of the information was just the symptoms of the disease as well as how many people were actually diagnosed with it but as expected, he was bound to find one of the crucial pieces of data, one that he knew was coming. "Fuck" Logan said again, his epiphany from earlier being answered. "We're all infected"

"What?" Lucy asked, finally drawing his attention away from the bounds of evidence that supported his conclusion.

"We're all infected. As soon as we breathed the air, we were infected." He replied, before turning to face her. "Whoever did this had thousands of the devices that infected Kendall deployed across the surface. According to this, the devices were supposed to go off at the same time, and the disease was released from them, infecting anyone nearby. However, the devices also propelled some of the disease into the atmosphere, making sure that everyone on the planet was infected."

"We were infected as soon as we got onto the planet, but the device sped up Kendall's symptoms" Dak interrupted, causing Logan to nod.

"Fuck" Lucy replied, rubbing her face in anxiety.

"And what about a cure? Does the data include anything about a cure?" Dak asked, causing Lucy to scoff.

"Have you seen this place? Do you think everyone would have been dead if they'd found a cure?"

"You don't know, they might have found one, but didn't have enough time to deploy it"

"But there would have been at least some survivors of that were the case"

"ENOUGH!" Logan shouted, interrupting their bickering, causing the two of them to silence. "Standing there arguing isn't going to change anything and it's certainly not helping our situation! Lucy, find a way to contact the ship now, and Dak, the commander has passed out again, so keep an eye on his vital signs." The doctor ordered, causing the two of them to nod but he noticed the side eye that was given.

Taking a deep breath, Logan continued his search through the data banks.

Surely the species must have discovered something right?"

* * *

It was about 15 minutes later when the away team began to hear a static sound coming through their insignia. "This…zzz…Diamond…zzz…Please…zzz…in" came through, causing Logan to turn straight to Lucy.

"Can you clear that up for us?" he asked, causing Lucy to nod, as she began to fiddle with her insignia once again. The buzzing sound seemed to quieten slightly as James voice came through again.

"This is the Diamond, please respond" the chief asked once more, as he glanced over at Jo.

"This…zzz…Doctor…zzz…hear…" sounded over the bridge, causing a small smile to grow on James' face.

"I'm matching our frequency to theirs now and…"

"This is Doctor Mitchell; can you hear me?" Logan asked, causing James to let out a sigh of relief.

"Loud and clear Doctor, what's your situation" James asked, the whole bridge now listening intently.

"Well, the life signs we were tracking were a hoax, and the whole away team has been infected with a disease"

"Can you repeat that, you've all been…"

"Infected with a disease" Logan interrupted, causing James to run his hands through his hair in stress. "I'm transmitting as much data as I can back to the Diamond as we speak, but the synopsis is that someone infected the planet with a disease and it spread into the atmosphere. The Commander was exposed to an intense burst of it, and we're keeping a close eye on him, but we don't know how long we all have. We also don't have any start on a cure" the doctor continued, causing James to nod.

"Ok doctor, we'll get on it immediately and we'll be in contact whe…" The transmission cut out mid-sentence, separating the two teams once again. "Doctor?" James asked as he tried to open a channel once again, but he was instead met with the annoying disapproving buzz. "Ensign, what happened to our channel?" he asked, glancing over at Jo, who was frantically pressing away.

"Um, the storm is blocking it" she replied, not taking her eyes off the console.

"I thought we accounted for that"

"Apparently, it adapted to our modifications" she replied, causing James to run his hands over his face once again.

"Fuck" he mumbled, before straightening out his suit as he began to dish out orders. "Ensign Taylor, I need you to go down to sickbay for me and search through the data that the doctor sent you. Do whatever it takes, and I mean whatever it takes for you to find a cure, you understand me?" he asked, causing her to nod as she began to walk off. Just as she reached the lift however, James had a brain wave. "Oh, and I want you to take Carlos with you" he began, causing the two of them to raise an eyebrow at him in confusion. "Like the doctor said, this disease is in the atmosphere, so once the cure is found, I need the two of you to try and outfit it so that it'll work in a beam or torpedo. That way we can remove it from the atmosphere and stop this from happening to anyone else" he reasoned, causing the two of them to nod.

"We're on it sir" Carlos replied, causing James to give them a small smile as they disappeared into the lift. With those two gone, James then turned to Camille.

"Ensign, I still need you to keep an eye out of any Wreisk ships, now more than ever"

"You've got it sir" she replied, spinning in her seat back towards the Conn.

"And I'm going to figure out why our sensors didn't pick up the disease as well as how this storm adapted to our modifications" he mumbled, making his way back over to the operations console.

Taking a deep breath, James began to search through the data as he tried not to focus on the fact that Kendall was dying on the planet below.

* * *

As Dak shined a light into Kendall's eyes, he saw how unresponsive the blond was being. It was that, coupled with the fact that Kendall was sweating and barely breathing that Dak knew he they didn't have a lot of time left.

"Doc, could you give me a hand?" he asked, causing Logan to look over with him with a short glance. When Logan caught sight of Kendall however, his eyes widened slightly causing him to drop what he was doing. "Any luck with a cure?" Dak asked, causing Logan to shake his head.

"Nothing. With these computer systems, I'm struggling to navigate through the data as it is. Even if the species before us did find anything, it may be so deep in the data banks that I may never find it. And don't even get me started on the amount of restrictions I've had to hack my way through"

"I could help with that" Lucy spoke up, causing the two of them to look over at her. "I can get through the firewall, allowing all of the data to be accessible and I'll set up a search parameter to look for whatever you'll need" she continued, causing Logan to take the glasses off of his face and toss them at her. Lucy had to think fast, but she, luckily, caught the glasses and made her way over to the console. With one problem being solved, Logan turned his attention back to Kendall.

"Anyway, I called you over because he's coming significantly weaker. He's sweating, and his breathing has also shallowed. The problem is, I didn't want to give him anything, because I don't know how it'll interact with the disease" Dak stated, causing Logan to nod as he placed his hand over the pulse point on Kendall's neck.

"In any other situation, I'd agree with you, but I don't think we have a choice." Logan began, as he rubbed his hands over his forehead. "Administer 5cc's of Mecaretin. That should help strengthen his immune response a little" the doctor finished, causing Dak to nod as he reached into the emergency bag and pulled out the medicine vial. He was quick to load it into his autospray, and press the device against Kendall's neck in order to deliver the medicine.

With one click, the medicine was transferred into Kendall's system, and that caused the blond to calm for a short moment. Dak and Logan let out a short sigh of relief, but it was too soon as the blond shot up from his seat, where he began to cough up more and more blood. Dak and Logan were quick to exchange a glance before they got to work, trying to help the blond in any way they could.

* * *

"I just don't get it!" Jo sighed as she poured over the data. "It doesn't follow any genetic science I know, and that's saying something"

"In what way?" Carlos asked, causing her to glance over at him as she loaded up the data she was working on. On the screen flashed four letters, as well as a double helix DNA structure.

"In the case of life on earth, DNA is made up of four components, Guanine, Cytosine Adenine and Thymine or GCAT and only certain ones will pair. Guanine and Cytosine will always pair, and technically the same is true of Adenine and Thymine in terms of DNA" she began, giving Carlos a visual presentation as she spoke, so that it would make it simpler to the Latino to understand. It wasn't that she thought Carlos was stupid, it's just that she knew this would be difficult to understand.

"So, when DNA is replicated, the double helix is unzipped and instead paired with a single helix, creating two new strands of DNA, still pairing G and C, and A and T." she continued, showing Carlos the splitting of one DNA to create two new ones. So far, the Latino was following along, but if the next part was confusing her, then she knew that it would confuse him.

"But what's confusing about this disease is that it's not conforming to our usual knowledge. It has seemed to have attached itself to the DNA molecules and is adding a, I don't know let's call it q, so it's adding a new q nucleotide into the mix which is throwing off the usual replication process. It's completely baffling as to how it's done it, but it definitely makes for a brilliant disease. Unless you knew what to scan for, it shouldn't show up on a scanner because of the level that it's affecting the cells" she finished, finally looking over to Carlos, who was just as baffled.

"That is confusing" he added, causing her to let out a little chuckle before she sighed.

"Anyway, I best get back to it. The Chief and the whole away team are depending on me to cure them"

* * *

"So, the disease has added a q nucleotide into the mix, throwing off the replication process" Logan spoke out loud as he came to the same conclusion as Jo. Lucy was now tinkering with her insignia again in order to try and contact the ship once more, and Dak was looking after Kendall, who was still coughing up blood. "If that's the case then, it would mean that the body wouldn't recognise the cells and is therefore trying to kill them off." Logan let out a sigh as he released what the disease was doing. "It's getting the body to attack itself! With the new strand of DNA being replicated, the white blood cells wouldn't recognise them and would try to fight them off. That's why Kendall's coughing up blood! Because his body is rejecting the one thing that is letting him live!" The doctor enthused about his breakthrough, before setting back to work on the console. "So that means that all I need to do is isolate the q nucleotide on a DNA level and remove it from the strand so that the body will stop attacking itself! The cure will need to target the polymerase, which pair the two new DNA strands!"

"Um, Doctor!" Dak said, causing Logan to blood over at him before his eyes flicked too Kendall who was hanging over the side of the bed. "He's passed out again, but his breathing is exceptionally shallow this time. Also, blood is pouring out of his mouth at quite an accelerated rate"

"Help me get him back on the bed properly" Logan ordered, causing Dak to nod as the two of them lifted Kendall back into a sitting position. "Keep his head forward, so that it doesn't go back down his throat. We don't need his lungs filling with blood and him drowning in it, and keep an eye on his breathing" Logan ordered, causing Dak to nod before he was overcome with a coughing fit as well. "Fuck!" Logan swore as he moved round to help Dak onto one of the chairs, as Dak began the same process Kendall did earlier.

Luckily, to some extent, Logan knew what would happen in the next few minutes so while he was still worried, he knew what he was about to face. "Lucy, any luck getting in contact with the ship?" he asked, causing her to let out a small huff.

"Not at the moment, but I'll keep trying" she replied, causing him to nod once again as he turned back to the other male, who's coughing had only gotten worse.

"I've got you" the doctor said to Dak, causing the coughing brunet to nod slightly as his situation worsened further. It was hard for Logan to witness, as he knew that there was nothing he could do but wait for the coughing male to pass out, so he just stayed by his side until it happened, about 2 minutes later. Logan was quick to move the brunet into a more comfortable position, laying him on the ground to help with blood flow, before he went back to work on finding a cure.

That was the real way he could help Kendall and now Dak.

* * *

It was about 10 minutes later when Logan finally came up with a solution for the disease, and the smile he had on his face was enormous.

"I've got it!" he enthused, looking over his data again. "I need to reprogram the polymerase in order to cut off the new nucleotide which is being added. At the moment, the disease has changed their programming, saying that the new nucleotide isn't an issue, but I need to restore them back to the default setting. I just need…" Logan began to search around the room, opening up all sorts of draws and cupboards to try and find what he needed. Of course, luck wasn't on his side this time, with him being unable to find the necessary equipment, and that's when the doctor began to feel a small tingle in the back of his throat. "Lucy, any luck with the ship?" He asked, causing her to shake her head at him.

"I'm making some progress but it's slow."

"All I need is about 30 seconds worth of transmission" he replied, causing her to nod.

"I'll work on it, but the storm isn't making it easy. It keeps adapting to any changes that I make"

"Almost like it's alive" Logan mumbled, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him. "Think about it. The disease was released into the atmosphere, where it spread around the whole planet. That means it would have had to adapt itself to the different climates that the planet has in order for itself to survive. Maybe this is just another one of its survival techniques. It's adapting to everything that we throw at it, so that it can keep as many people down here as possible" Logan began to brainstorm. "I mean, it would make sense as to everything we've seen. The disease could have allowed us to talk to the ship, telling them that we were infected but as soon as we started to talk about a cure, it cut us off. That way, the disease might be thinking that if it doesn't allow us to contact the ship again, it might get more people down here as they'll send a rescue mission for us."

"But a disease isn't alive it is? The way you talk makes it sound like it's a living thing that out to get us" Lucy replied, causing Logan to mull a few things over, taking in what she said.

"We know very little about this thing, other than what it's doing to us. For all we know, it could have gained some type of intelligence, maybe at the scale of a…lion. All it knows is that it needs to kill."

"So, we need to outsmart it" Lucy asked again, a slight hesitation in her voice.

"It's the only theory we have so far, so we might as well work with it" Logan reasoned, causing her to shrug slightly.

"Alright then, let's do this."

* * *

"Sir, I've got Wreisk ships on sensors. By the looks of it, there's about 10 of them coming in quite fast"

"As if today could get any worse" James mumbled under his breath, before he turned back to Camille. "Thanks Ensign. Keep me updated on their position" he replied, causing her to nod as she turned back to the Conn stations. As she did that, James pressed onto his insignia. "Ensign Taylor, Lieutenant Garcia, I need you back up here. We've got Wreisk incoming" he ordered, causing him to hear a small sigh from the other side of the communication.

"Alright Chief, we're on our way."

"I'm guessing you haven't been very successful?"

"Unfortunately not, Chief."

"Well, we'll have to work on it once the Wreisk is gone. They're our main priority now" he replied, before cutting off the transmission once again.

"There a minute out sir" Camille updated him, causing him to nod.

"Alright Ensign, you know the drill" he replied, just as the lift doors opened, with Jo and Carlos walking out. "Ensign Taylor, take over for me" he said, causing the blonde girl to nod as they swapped positions, James now heading down to the first officer's seat, where he loaded up the small console.

"Shields are fully charged, and weapons are on standby sir" Carlos reported, causing James to nod.

"Perfect"

"They're entering the system now sir" Camille reported, as the view screen showed all ten ships flashing in at once. Slightly intimidated, James readied himself as he pulled on his top slightly, watching how the ten ships began to fire at them.

"Fire at will Lieutenant!" James commanded, causing Carlos to nod as he began to target the leading ship. The Diamond jolted from side to side as the Wreisk weapons impacted the ship, but that didn't deter the crew from their missions. With beams firing, it wouldn't have been difficult for them to lose sight of a couple ships in the firefight, but James' eyes were spot on in this case, noticing how two began to slip away from the battle, and headed towards the planet.

"Taylor, what are those ships doing?" he asked, causing Jo to analyse their flight path.

"They're headed straight for the planet, exactly over where the away team were when we were last in contact with them" she reported back, causing James to run his hand through his hair as they watched the two ships open fire on that position.

"It's their disease" he mumbled, before turning to Camille. "Roberts, get us in between the planet and their ships. Let nothing enter the atmosphere." He ordered, causing Camille to nod as she flew the ship into a strategic position that would protect the away team. "Right, we hold here. Taylor, analyse those ships for any signs of weakness. Anything will do."

"On it, sir"

"And Garcia" he began, causing Carlos to raise an eyebrow at him. "Don't stop firing!"

"You've got it sir"

* * *

The hospital building rattled around the four of them, along with a loud bang causing Logan and Lucy, the only conscious ones, to jump slightly. "Looks like we have company" Lucy began, causing Logan to nod.

"Then let's hope this works" he replied, as they finished their final touches. "Right, so we have three different beacons ready to transmit." He began, causing Lucy to nod. "All of them contain the data but they are all running at extreme frequencies, right?" he asked, causing Lucy to nod.

"Exactly, which should mean that the disease will have a little trouble adapting to all of them at once. The packet of data is small enough to be transferred in thirty seconds, so we can only hope that it'll take the disease longer to adapt. But if it doesn't-"

"Let' just hope it does ok" he replied, causing her to nod with a sad smile on her face. "You ready?"

"Ready" As soon as Lucy said that, the two of them began to transmit, sending all three data pulses into the atmosphere. Logan then moved over to the console where he began to track it.

"The disease has gone after the first packet, and it's trying to adapt" Logan read out, watching how 8 seconds had gone by.

"The first transmission was blocked" Lucy then read out, seeing how it took the disease 12 seconds to do so.

"It's on the second packet, and we've been transmitting for 16 seconds now" Logan replied, watching how slowly the seconds ticked up. "21 seconds-"

"The disease has adapted to that one as well" Lucy replied, shutting off the second beacon. "We have one shot left" she added, moving over to the console Logan was watching. 22, 23, 24 seconds passed, the two of them intently watching.

"It's started on the third one now"

26, 27

"Fuck!" Lucy slammed her fist down as the data hit 28 seconds before stopping. "We were two seconds out"

"Let's hope that enough data was sent for them to get the idea." Logan replied, before letting out a small cough. The brunet was quick to manoeuvre himself onto the floor, as his coughing intensified, and before long, he has accompanied with the sound of Lucy's cough as well, as she also made her way down onto the floor. Glancing at each other once more, Logan was the first to pass out, Lucy following shortly after.

Their only hope now was the Diamond.

* * *

"Shields are down to 67% and falling" Carlos reported as the ship jolt to one side again. "We have however destroyed 3 of their vessels, and 2 more are damaged" he added, causing James to nod.

"Perfect, and Ensign Taylor, any luck with a weakness?"

"No sir. They rerouted power around their ship, so it doesn't mean at that singular junction anymore, but I'll keep checking"

"Shields down to 55%"

"Alright, reroute auxiliary power to shields" James ordered, causing Jo to nod as she followed orders.

"Shields up to 70%. It's not a lot, but it'll help" Carlos called out, causing James to nod. That's when a small beep played from Jo's console as well as a flashing light.

"We're picking up a transmission on the lower subspace band, and it's originating from the planet!" she enthused, causing James to jog up to the operations console as she loaded up the data. "The doctor's a genius, he's found a cure"

"A little off with the timing, but it'll work none the less. How long do you think it'll take for you to synthesis it?" he asked, as they both looked over the data.

"5 minutes, maybe longer"

"You've got 4" James replied, causing Jo to nod as she moved away from the console, allowing James to take over as she headed for the lift. "Good luck Ensign" James added, causing her to nod once more before she finally disappeared.

"Shields are at 59%, but they're down to 6 ships sir" Carlos reported, causing James to glance over at him.

"Nice work Lieutenant" the chief replied, causing Carlos to flash him a small smile before the Diamond jolted once again.

That wiped the smile off of Carlos' face, causing James to chuckle slightly as the Latino refocused his efforts.

It was four minutes later that Jo came over the comms, allowing James to let out a little sigh of relief. "Sir, I've got four autosprays of the cure ready, but it'll take a little longer for me to synthesis enough for the entire atmosphere" she stated, causing James to nod.

"Alright Ensign, thank you. I'll get the engineering department to start working on a torpedo to distribute it. Just be ready for when the away team are back on board" he replied, before the communicate cut off once again.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we still can't get a lock on the away team, so even though we have a cure, we have no way to administer it to them" Camille said, causing James to run his hand over his chin and down his neck slightly.

"This storm is blocking all transmission leaving the planet correct"

"Well, apart from a few of them, but correct" Camille replied, causing a small sparkle in James' eyes.

"Which means that all we need to do is get below the storm."

"Are you suggesting what I think you are sir?" Carlos piped up, causing James to nod.

"If you're thinking we need to take the ship under the atmosphere then yes." He replied, moving away from the operations console slightly. "Think about it. Once we are under the storm, our normal functions will be returned, and we'll be able to get a lock on the team"

"Yes, but we also don't know what is down there. If we enter where the away team last radioed, then that could be right in the middle of a city. For all we know, we could fly straight into a building."

"I guess you'll have to stay alert then Ensign." James quipped, causing Camille to gain a small smile as she shook her head. "Ensign take us in. Lieutenant, on my signal, I need you to drop the shields long enough for me to get a transporter beam through. Hopefully the Wreisk won't follow us down, and when our shields are down, hopefully their beams won't hit us."

"That's a lot of hope sir" Carlos replied, causing James to shrug.

"I believe in us"

"Entering the atmosphere now sir" Camille stated, causing James to return back to the operations console. "And we're leaving the storm now" she added, just as a skyscraper came into view. Camille's respond was quick, strafing the ship to the left, while James scanned the area for the life signs.

"I've found them. Shields Lieutenant" James ordered, causing Carlos to slide the power bars down.

"Shields are down. 2 Wreisk ships are started to follow" the Latino replied, as the view screen showed a beam firing in front of them.

"Locking on now and…initiating transport" James commented, as the ship jolted quite rapidly.

"Beam strike on deck 10. Emergency forcefield in place" Carlos stated, as Camille dodged around another building.

"Transport complete, all four life signs have been transported to sickbay."

"I have them sir, and the torpedo is ready" Jo's voice boomed over the bridge, causing James to grin slightly.

"Shields up Lieutenant, and get us the hell out of here Ensign. As soon as we're back in space, fire the torpedo Lieutenant, and then Ensign, resume our course to Earth, Flash 9" James ordered, causing the two of them to fulfil their orders, as the Diamond jolted once more. The three of them watched the view screen as it showed the Diamond leaving the atmosphere and as soon as they were clear, the torpedo was fired.

The ship remained in orbit long enough for them to see the changes in the atmosphere's colour, where the disease was being irradiated before they flashed out. Once they were safe, James spoke up again.

"Garcia, you're in charge for the moment. I'm going to check on the away team" he said, causing the Latino to nod before James made his way to the lift. The ride down felt long, James filled with worry and as soon as the doors opened, the brunet found himself sprinting down the corridor until he finally arrived at his destination. He was greeted with the sight of the away team on beds, with IV hooked up to their arms as they rested.

"Report Ensign" He ordered, causing her to pull up her pad.

"They're going to be ok sir." She began, causing James to visibly relax. "The cure is working as expected and is targeting the rogue nucleotide, but I'm keeping them under just to make sure. I'd say that Lieutenant Stone and the Doctor will be fine in about 3 hours, Nurse Zevon in about 5 hours, but it's the Commander who'll take longer. Because of how far the disease had spread, I had to make some modifications to the cure but it's taking longer to work anyway. Once the rogue nucleotide is gone, we'll also have to do a blood transfusion to replace the lost blood. But, I don't want to risk doing it just yet as it may aid the disease instead of the cure" she continued, causing James to nod.

"Ok, keep me updated of their situation, as well as if any complications arise" he replied, causing her to nod as she flashed him a small smile, one he was reluctant to return.

* * *

"First Officer's log Stardate 62707.9834. Following the events of today, Doctor Mitchell and Lieutenant Stone have woken up and are perfectly healthy, with the cure working as expected. The Doctor promised to write a full report on the situation once he has fully recovered, which Ensign Taylor suggests will be in a day or two, but I am still awaiting news on Nurse Zevon and the Commander. Ensign Taylor continues to ensure me that Nurse Zevon will awaken in a few more hours and that the disease is almost out of the Commander's system, but I can't help but be a little sceptical. The commander was closest to the blast when it went off, and therefore was the furthest along in its progression. All we know is that the Commander is in a medically induced coma while the cure works and that hopefully once the blood transfusion is completed, he will wake up soon after. I suppose we can only wait and see. Computer end log" James finished, as he sank back into his chair the whole day in review.

His heart seemed to ache slightly at the thought of Kendall being in that position, and in a spur of the moment decision, the brunet found himself walking back through the corridors of them ship. When he finally got to the sickbay, he found one nurse on call, and that Lucy and Logan had been moved back to their quarters.

"Can I help you with anything sir?" The nurse asked, causing James to shake his head as he flashed her a small smile.

"I just came to check up on them" he said, gesturing his head towards Dak and Kendall. "I couldn't sleep so" he shrugged, causing her to smile back at him.

"I understand sir. And if you need anything, I'll be in the office" she replied, leaving James alone with the two of them.

Out of impulse, the brunet found himself grabbing a chair and wheeling it over to Kendall's head, where he surveyed the blond. From the outside, they're looked as if there was nothing wrong with him, but James knew there was a battle raging inside.

Taking Kendall's hand into his own, the brunet whispered "I'm right here" before placing a chaste kiss onto the commander's forehead.

* * *

 **So there we have it! I'd like to apologise again for anything medical stuff that is wrong, and also for any grammar or spelling mistakes in this! But yeah, this chapter focused on a disease, and it concluded with Kendall being in a Coma while James is buy his side!**

 **I want to thank Winterschild11, Guest and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing the last chapter, and I'm glad you all enjoyed it as it was fun to write! To answer RainbowDiamonds question, I came up with the glasses and I'm glad you liked them! Also, I'm interested to see what you think about what I've done with Kames in this one.**

 **Anyway, I will see you all on Monday for the next chapter of Class Vs Character, but until then,**

 **TTFN 😃🚀**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi Guys and Happy Valentine's Day! So, I've decided that I'd surprise you all today, and post a longer chapter for you all to read! Of course, this isn't Rush & Response, which I usually post on Thursday, but it's been so long since I've posted a chapter of this, that I decided to post this instead! **

**I've been working on this since Monday and it's a little different from the usual chapters I post for this story, but I really hope you like it none the less! Also, I apologise if this is a little confusing to read. I've tried my best to break it up into smaller chunks as otherwise it would just be massive blocks of text, so I hope it isn't too confusing.**

 **Right, let's crack on, shall we? Also, I apologise for any spelling or grammar mistakes that are in this chapter!**

* * *

"Any update on the Commander?" Lucy asked, settling down with a wine glass in hand, as Logan shrugged.

"Not much really. He's completely fine now, it's just a matter of waiting for him to wake up" the doctor replied, causing everyone in the room to nod as they each took a seat. Logan was sat next to Carlos, who was to the right of Jo, and sat on the other sofa in the room was Camille and Lucy, who were leaving just enough room to James to sit down when he was finished rushing about preparing snacks and drinks. "I mean, it's common for induced comas to last over a week, but it's when they begin to last over a month that we should worry."

"That's enough work talk" James interrupted, placing a bowl of mini pretzels on the table, next to the bowl of tortilla chips, cheese puffs and bread sticks. As soon as the bowl touched the table, Carlos grabbed a hand full, causing James to roll his eyes slightly as he grabbed a bottle of beer before sitting down himself and taking a swig of it.

"So, if we can't talk about work, what can be talk about?" Lucy asked, causing everyone to let out a chuckle at her abruptness.

"Anything. I don't know a lot about any of you really, so I thought it would be nice if we chilled for an evening. I mean, we're worked with each other for a little over two months now" the brunet replied, before talking another swig of his drink. "Plus, we've had a pretty successful week, so I think it's about time we celebrated"

"Amen to that!" Camille added, raising her bottle into the air. That caused everyone to follow suit as they all toasted to the week they'd had, and to be honest it was an unusually dull week.

After escaping and curing the diseased planet, Logan, Dak and Lucy seemed to completely recover within a couple of days and they were back to work soon after that. The blood transfusion on Kendall had been a success, and much like Logan said, they were just waiting for him to wake up. But that was pretty much it. The Wreisk hadn't attacked at all, and using the navigational data from the first trap they were caught in, they were able to avoid any fleets or dangerous inhabited planets along their course back to Earth. They'd also managed to restock a few supplies with a great amount of ease, meaning that the ship was in top shape, and running at peak efficiency. With that being said, James decided to throw a little 'party' for the senior staff and bridge crew, considering what they'd been through over the last two months, leading to everyone being in his quarters at this very moment.

"The Lieutenant Commander-"

"James" James interrupted, causing Logan to roll his eyes.

"James does have a point, it has been a good week. I mean, there have been no Wreisk attacks" Logan replied, causing everyone to nod briefly.

"And I managed to improve our course, cutting our journey down by 2 months." Camille added, before Carlos spoke up.

"Plus, I was able to improve our weapons by 10% with Lucy's help" the Latino added, causing Lucy to cheer slightly before taking another sip of her wine.

"See, it's been a good week" James concluded once again, causing Jo and Camille to exchange a quick glance before they both rolled their eyes and took a sip of their drinks. "Now that's enough work talk. Let's just have a nice, stress free evening where we can all chill out and not worry about anything, it's definitely well deserved."

"Why don't you start then Lieutenant commander?" Lucy spoke up again, causing all eyes to turn to James as the brunet took a sip of his drink. "

What you want to know?" James replied, causing Lucy to shrug.

"What about why you became an engineer? I'm curious as to how you got to a point where you worked on a top secret ship" Jo asked, casing a smile to grow on James' face.

"Well, you best settle in, because it's a long story" James joked, before taking another sip of his beer. He also noticed how everyone shuffled slightly as they all got settle in.

* * *

"I suppose it all started when I was younger as I'd work on projects with my dad. He's an engineer as well, and when I was growing up, I always remember him tinkering with something, whether it be a small little robotic part or our fusion reactor a home" James began, causing everyone to chuckle. "I remember, when I was really young, I walked into the garage one day and he was rebuilding an old earth car from the 21st Century. I was mind blown by it, with how old it looked, as well as the decades old gadgets it had. I mean, there was still a radio in it, and we haven't used those in centuries"

"That is pretty old" Logan added, causing everyone to nod as James took a drink of his beer.

"I remember my dad working on the engine when I walked into the garage that day, and for some reason I decided it would be a good idea to climb into the drivers side door. I was what, maybe 6 at this point so I was still young, and when I sat in the seat, I remember pretending to turn the steering wheel that the car had. I remember making the noises of a shuttle craft as it flew through the sky because that's what I thought the car sounded like, and that's when I heard my dad chuckling at me. Of course, being a small kid, I just started to giggle back as I continued to make the noises and that's when he finally shut the bonnet of the car so that he could look at me through the windshield. He had the biggest smile on his face as he said 'it doesn't make those noises Jamie' so I tilted my head back at him as I asked what noises it did make. 'Let me show you' he replied nodding his head for me to move over to the passenger seat as he made his way over to where I was just sat. I distinctly remember him opening a sun visor that the car had, and a small key dropped out of it. 'What's that for?' I remember asking, causing him to let out another chuckle as he told me it was used to start the cars"

"Damn, we haven't used keys in ages. Not even for doors. It's all command codes and fingerprints now" Camille added, causing James to chuckle as he nodded.

"It just shows how old the car was. So, anyway, I remember him pushing the key into the ignition and he nodded his head at me once again, asking if I wanted to join him in turning it. Of course, I did, because I was super curious about it all, I remember as we turned the key, the car let out this large banging sound before the engine revved. I jumped out of my skin at the sound, and my dad let out another little chuckle as he assure me it was ok. With the car running, he started to show me what all the peddles did, and I remember when I asked if I could drive it, he just shook his head but instead said that he'd take me out in it. So, I sat back down in the passenger seat and he pulled the seat belt over me in order to make sure I was secure, and I remember watching as he pushed in the clutch. As soon as he did that, the engine made another loud bang and the car completely shut down"

"Oh god, you weren't hurt were you?" Jo asked, causing James to shake his head before taking another sip of his beer.

"No, we were alright. Well, I was shit scared, but we weren't hurt. So, we both climbed out of the car, with me climbed over the driver's side door in order to get out so I could follow my dad because I was terrified and we both made our way over to the front of the car. When I dad popped open the bonnet, I remember a massive plume of black smoke rising from it, and some of it even attached itself to my face, but once that had cleared, I remember gasping at what I saw. The thing only had a combustion engine in it!"

"No way!" Lucy replied, obviously invested in the story by the way she was leaning forward as James spoke.

"Oh yeah" James chuckled, taking another sip of his drink. "At the time, it was definitely the most complex thing I'd seen but I also became so fascinated by it. My dad was mumbling away about how a piston had blown or something, I wasn't really paying attention at that point, but then I remember him pushing on my chest slightly in order to get to step back. So, I did as he wanted, and that's when the car rose into the air. Dad had it on some sort of lift, so that he could also work on the underside of it, and I remember looking at the engine from underneath and becoming more in awe with it. Dad could obviously see the look on my face, so he started to explain everything that he thought had gone wrong with it, pointing to the bits so I knew what he was talking about. I just stood there, listening and watching as he began to unscrew bolts, and when he'd ask me to grab something for him, I remember being so excited because I was helping him work on it. It made my day and after that we spend a lot of time in the garage together fixing up odd bits and bobs. The car was always our big project, but I remember one time we made a small replica of the Vanguard. We worked on it together, and we even made sure that it could fly at the end, so we could control it with a remote control. From then on, I just loved tinkering with things with him, and we'd work on everything together. As I got older, we started to work on bigger and harder projects, but it never stopped the two of us from struggling through with them, although we did have a few minor explosions and injuries along the way. That really why I became an engineer"

* * *

"That's so sweet" Camille cooed, with Jo agreeing.

"But I'm still curious as to how you started to work on experimental ships" Carlos added, causing James to let out a chuckle as he took a sip of his beer.

"That came about in my academy days" he began, reaching forward to grab a breadstick before he shuffled back on the sofa to get comfortable.

* * *

"So, it was starting my third year of the academy as, as you know, that's when you get to choose what specialism you want to go into and focus on for the next 2 years, and I remember walking into my first engineering lecture. I was only what, 21 at the time, so I was still a little anxious about everything that was going on, and I was still unsure of whether I'd made the right decision. Luckily, I knew a couple people from the first couple of years that I could sit with, but we were by no means friends. Anyway, so I sat there with my pad, ready to take notes about the lecture when the professor started talking. He did the usual introduction to Engineering spiel, so I couldn't help but zone out for most of the lecture, with it being stuff that I already knew. It was when the lecture finally ended that he caught my interest.

'So, now that that's over' he began, loading up a hologram of the old mark 7 flash drives, and it immediately caught my interest for some reason. 'I'm guessing you all know what this is' he continued, and pretty much everyone in the room nodded. 'And can anyone tell me why they went out of commission?' he asked, and that question seemed to stump everyone in the room. I remember some guy shouting 'because the mark 8 was invented' causing the whole class to chuckle, but the lecturer shot back 'but why was the mark 8 needed' and again the whole place went silent.

After a few minutes passed, the lecture finally spoke up again. 'It's because the mark 7 had one major fault. The antimatter injector would get blocked precisely 3 years into service meaning that we had to completely redesign the flash drive system. Now, I set this as a task every year, and so far no one has been able to solve why it did that. Let's see what you can do' and when he'd finished, he just dismissed us all, telling everyone that he'd see us during the next lecture"

"I remember when they introduced the new mark 8's. They had a whole new power transfer system linked with them that we had to learn" Lucy interrupted, causing James to nod before she went silent.

"So, what happened next?" Logan asked, James taking another sip of his beer before he spoke.

"So, when we left the lecture that day, I remember everyone talking about the challenge our professor had set. Everyone was talking about how easy it would be to figure out, and they were all confused as to how no one had solved it yet. It was about a week before our next lecture, and I remember spending a few hours over that week thinking about the task he'd set. I wasn't taking it seriously at the time, and I remember coming up with a really simple solution to the problem, but when I turned up to the lecture, it seemed that everyone had the same solution. So, we all filed into the lecture theatre, and the professor did the entire lecture and when he finished, and everyone had packed up, he asked if anyone had a solution to the problem. About half of the lecture theatres hands when up, and the professor let out a little chuckle. 'Ok then' I remember him saying, before pointing to a guy that was a few rows in front of me.

'You, come and show us your solution' he nodded his head to the guy, before loading up the hologram of the flash drive. The guy had a massive smug smile on his face as he loaded his solution into the computer and from what he was inputting, it was basically the same thing that I'd thought of and the rest of the lecture theatre. So, we all sat quietly as he worked away, and when he was finished, I remember the professor loading the hologram with the new coding. 'Let's see if it works then' the professor said, and he began to run the simulation. Within thirty seconds maybe of that happening, the virtual hologram blew up, and the guy's face completely dropped.

'Oh' was all he said as the lecturer turned to him.

'Yeah, it wasn't someone simple like that otherwise we would have already figured it out. Anyone else got an idea?' the professor asked, as the guy made his way back to his seat and a new girl got up to give her idea a go. Again, within about thirty seconds of it running, the flash drive blew, leaving everyone stumped. 'Anyone else?' he asked, and everyone shook theirs head. We were all completely confused, and that's pretty much how the pattern continued. After the third lecture, a few people had a few more idea, but they all resulted in an explosion, and every week more and more people gave up"

"But not you?" Carlos asked, causing James to grin as he nodded his head.

"But not me. I kept working on it when all the rest of my stuff was done, and I even started to run simulations by myself in order to see if my ideas were working. Months must have gone past, and more and more people were giving up but not me. Every time he asked if anyone was still trying, I'd shove my hand up, but when he'd ask if I had a solution, I'd just shake my head, saying I was still working on one. He'd wish me luck every time, but I could see and hear my peers saying that it couldn't be done. When he broke up for Christmas, I went home with all my work completed so I could spend the holiday working on this, and I spent most of my time that holiday working on the problem. I even asked my dad about it at one point, and even he couldn't think of a solution for it. I must have invested days of my time into solving it, and I remember the evening that I did so clearly, as I practically screamed with joy in my room. So, when term started again, the first thing the professor asked was whether someone had solved the issue, and I remember being so nervous as I raised my hand. I could feel the entire lecture theatre staring at me as I did, and even the lecture looked shocked for a second.

'Come on up then' he said, and I was practically shaking as I stood up with my pad in hand, with the change on it. As I stood behind the hologram of the drive, I remember looking up to everyone staring at me and I freaked out as I began to doubt everything I'd done. 'You alright?' I remember the lecturer asked me, and I slowly nodded as I looked back down at the console, and started to input my calculations. 'The reason that the core fails after three years is because of back up from the plasma conduits running to the nacelles' I began, causing the lecturer to raise his eyebrow at me.

'The reason that it affects the antimatter injector specifically is because of it's proximity to the conduits. See, the antimatter would start to attract plasma towards it, meaning that about 1% of plasma would be stuck along the sides of the conduits closest to the antimatter and the reason it would explode after three years is because that's how long it takes for Eplacite to gain the faintest trace of radiation. As soon as that was the case, the plasma would become irradiated and cause the whole system to blow.' I finished, and I remember looking at him with a small smile on his face.

'You still haven't told us how to fix it' I remember him saying to me, and that's when I gained the smallest bit of confidence as I began to show off my calculations.

'It's actually quite simple to fix. Just add a small water flow pipe through the area. That way the water will absorb the small dose of radiation instead, and we'll be able to treat that simply' I said, this time pressing the button myself in order to run the calculations for the whole class to watch. I remember them all watching it intently, waiting for the core to blow up, but then thirty seconds had passed, and it was still running ok. A minute went, and still nothing had happened, so the lecturer told me to sit down, while he taught, promising to keep the simulation running until something blew up. It never did. By the end of the lecture, the simulation was still running, and I'd actually been able to increase the power output by about 3%. Everyone congratulated me as the lecture finished and I remember the professor calling me to the front. As I approached, I was petrified but that was quickly put to rest when he started to speak.

'You know, it took UEF's best three years to figure that out, and another two years to figure out how to fix it, and you did it in what? Four months? That's impressive' He began, and I remember blushing slightly.

'Thank you sir' I replied, but I remember him chuckling at me.

'No need to thank me, that was all you.' He replied, before loading something else up on the holoprojector. 'So, how'd you feel about being fast tracked into some of our advanced programs. I've seen your work, and you always know what you're talking about when it comes to this stuff, and from what you did here, it shows that you're smart enough to handle the challenge' he offered, and I remember stuttering slightly before accepting. The advanced programs were tailored for graduates that wanted some more advanced training, so when a trainee joined, everyone knew that I must have been good, and I suppose I continued to succeed.

I graduated the academy at the rank of Lieutenant, one step ahead of everyone else and was immediately offered a position working at Alpha Si Shipyards, where I began to work on new ship designs. It was my Dad and I who came up with the new flash drive design, as the two of us had been working on it for years, and once he'd finally gotten it sorted, the UEF green lighted it, with him being placed as the head of the project."

* * *

"That's…wow" Lucy said, causing James to shrug as he took a sip of his beer.

"Yeah. What can I say, I am pretty impressive" he joked, causing Logan to let out a little snort.

"I can't imagine you as ever being shy, especially with how you described yourself at the academy" the doctor said, causing James to shrug.

"I was definitely different back then, that's for sure. It was during the advanced programs that I realised I needed to be more confident in myself, especially with the amount of times I proved someone wrong after they'd questioned whether I actually belonged there." James replied, causing the room to go silent for a few seconds as everyone reflected on the brunet's history. "Anyway, that's enough about me. Why doesn't someone else share something"

"I'll go. I'll tell you all why I chose to become a pilot for the UEF" Camille said, causing everyone to turn to her with a smile on their faces, James finally getting the chance to grab a few snacks and relax comfortably as someone else took over talking for a short while.

* * *

"I suppose it all started when I was a kid as well actually. I was born and raised on a freighter called the Condor"

"So, you're a boomer" Carlos interrupted, causing Camille to nod.

"Like I said, born and raised" she chuckled, causing Logan to roll his eyes slightly. "So anyway, because of that, I was always used to the concept of being in space, so it never really bothered me. As a kid, I was always getting to explore new planets and new parts of space that I'd never been to before so there was always someone to look forward too. As well as that, I remember I always used to sneak onto the bridge when people weren't about, and I'd pretend to steer the ship and set a new course and that. A lot of the times, I get caught and scolded from my father, with him saying it was sensitive equipment, but it never stopped me from going back in. I'd just wait about a week and then repeat the same thing. I think it got to the point where my father realised that he wasn't going to be able to stop me from going it, so instead he decided to teach me what everything meant. I remember that day so clearly. I was sitting in the captain's chair, pretending to change the course of the ship when the doors slid open and I turned to see my dad stood there.

'Camille, how many times have I told you not to come in here' he asked as I jumped out of the seat.

'Many' I replied, avoiding making eye contact with him.

'And what do you keep doing?'

'Coming in here' I replied, and I couldn't seem to help the smile that was growing on my face.

I remember him letting out a rather long sigh as he rubbed his forehead before asking 'you're not going to listen again are you?' and I just shook my head, causing him to let out another sigh. 'Fine. If you're not gonna listen, I might as well teach you how it works so you can be more careful when you're in here' he said, and I remember the huge smile that grew on my face.

'Really?' I asked, now staring up at him, with wide eyes.

'Sure, follow me' he replied, watching down to the front of the bridge where the Conn was, and as he sat down on the seat, he pulled me into his lap before he started to point out what all the buttons and controls did. He never let me touch them of course, but I remember when we got back to our quarters, he loaded up a virtual version of it for me to toy around on. To be honest, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, but I remember looking every second of it. While the other kids on the run were running about, playing tag or hide and seek or whatever, I remember being cooped up in my room messing about on this console. I think my mum had to force me to go outside at one point, as I hadn't actually spoken to anyone for about a week. God, I must have practised on that thing for about 4/5 years before I finally convinced my dad to let me fly an actual ship. I must have been about 13 at the time, and I kept constantly telling that I wanted to see what it felt like to fly a real ship. He kept saying no, saying that I was too young to fly the freighter and that I'd end up doing something wrong, but I didn't let up. I started to run simulations of me flying the freighter, showing him that I knew exactly what I was doing, and eventually I got through to him. I remember one day, I was being particularly annoying about it, with me practically follow him around all day telling him that I could do, and eventually he just gave in.

'You're not flying the freighter' I remember him turning to me and saying, his finger pointing at me, before his features softened. 'But maybe I could take you out in a shuttle'

'Yes!' I screamed in excitement, but he quickly spoke over me.

'I'll take you out for an hour in it, but I'll be helping you control it the entire time, and at the first sign of trouble or problems, I'm bring us straight back. Deal'

'Deal!' I exclaimed, shaking his hand before I pulled him into a massive hug.

'Now go get practising. We'll head out when I've finished my shift' He continued, causing me to nod as I ran back to my room, all excited about the whole thing. I remember loading up the controls for a shuttle on my little simulator and memorising the entire thing, so I knew exactly what controlled what for when I got to fly it later. The day went past so slowly as I waited for my dad to come back to our quarters, and I remember as soon as he walked through the door, I jumped up and sprinted at him.

'Can we go now?' I asked as soon as he walked in, causing him to let out a little chuckle.

'Give me a minute to put my stuff away' he replied, and that minute seemed to drag for so long. I practically followed him around our quarters as he put all his stuff away, so I think by then he'd gotten the point. He took me out that night, and I flew the shuttle with no issues at all. I knew exactly what to do, and whenever a problem arose, I was able to sort it out pretty quickly. He was true to his word, we were only out for an hour, but I'd managed to prove in that time that I knew what I was doing. Soon, those shuttle flights became a nightly occurrence, and as I got older, he started to trust me with more and more things. By the time I was 16, he was letting me pilot the freighter on the night shifts when, surprising, no one else wanted to do it."

* * *

"So why did you become a pilot for the UEF?" James asked as Camille stopped for a breath. "From the way you describe it, it sounded like you loved being on the freighter"

"I did" Camille replied, before taking a sip of her drink. "But I started to get a little bored. With tensions running high with the Broctor, many freighters including our own, started to run smaller, shorter routes with less risk of danger. The star systems we visited started to become the same every month, and the thrill of new explores systems started to die out. Before long, like I said, I'd gotten bored and decided the best way for me to explore the universe was to sign up to the UEF. I mean, I didn't think on my first posting I'd be thrown this far out however" Camille joked, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle at her joke.

"I can imagine that was difficult. Going from piloting a freighter to a starship" Logan commented, causing Camille to nod.

* * *

"I'll admit, it was certainly something. On a freighter, there weren't as many rules and regulations to follow but with a UEF starship, there's so many of them. We were taught to do everything in a particular order at the academy, whereas on the Condor, I'd just turn everything on in whatever order I wanted. It was difficult to get used to at first. I remember one particular incident where I did something against the book, but that time, I was actually right."

"This should be good" Lucy said, causing Camille to grow a little smirk as she began.

"So you know that you have to go through a training scenario to see how you cope under pressure, well I remember being assigned to the group that I was supposed to work with. There was about 6 of us, and I remember we all decided to meet up in the weeks before our turn in order to practise all the scenarios that could come up. Our 'captain' was a right prick, excuse my language, and because I grew up on a freighter, he thought that I was totally inept for some reason. I don't know what his logic was for thinking this, but I remember that every single instruction he gave me, he'd explain how to do it, almost like I didn't know how to work a Conn console.

The first couple of times, I let it slide because I thought that he was just trying to be helpful, but when I realised that he was only doing it to me, I started to chat back to him slightly, saying what I was doing out loud before he could so that he knew I knew what I was, as well as to try and get my own back on him. Everyone in my group seemed to agree with me that being was being a dick, but every time I spoke to him about it, he'd just shut me down, saying that he wasn't doing it, or that he was just trying to be helpful. This went on for literal weeks, but I tried my best to try and not get too aggravated with it, until the day of our actual practise. So, while we were stood out, we all wished each other luck and told each other that we could do this, and we were being super supportive etc, and when we walked in, we all took our assigned seats.

I remember my Conn console being different to the ones that I'd practised on, but it didn't let it phase me as I sat there, waiting for our scenario to loads. So, we loaded into a scenario from the U.S.S Baker, and I recognised it immediately. It was one of the more difficult scenarios that we all seemed to struggle on a little bit at first, especially due to the amount of fire coming from the Croxon ships that we'd encounter. I glanced around, seeing that everyone was thinking the exact same thing I was, but we all nodded to each other before we began properly."

"I bet you were pretty nervous" Jo said, causing Camille to nod before taking another sip of her drink.

"Oh yeah, I was terrified, especially because I knew in this scenario that a lot of evasive manoeuvres were needed to get through it. Still, I tried not to let it get the best of me as we started, and the prick began to give out orders, and this time he seemed to be more intent on telling me exactly what to do. I knew that we were being monitored so I didn't say anything back to him as we approached the life pod that we had to save, and everyone was following procedures as usual, and that's when the Croxon ships came out of flash, and started to fire on us. Of course, the whole simulator descended into the red alert lighting, and I remember finding that the console was a more difficult to see under those conditions, something I hadn't experienced during our practise runs. It took me a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, and even then, I couldn't quite make out all of the controls, so I was running off memory alone.

Our commander began shouting out orders, telling the tactical officer to fire, while asking operations to divert more power to shields, and when he gave me my order, I told me to bring the ship round so that are starboard side was facing the enemies, which he made worse by telling me that that was the right side of the ship. I just rolled my eyes, before following his order, bring us about so that our starboard side was facing the enemy, while he gave everyone else their orders. We got quite lucky actually. A lot of the beams we fired seemed to hit the enemies instead of missing, so we managed to defeat the first few Croxon ships with ease, but as we know, the Croxon like to fight dirty. I remember one of them flying overhead of and then in front of our ship for a couple of kilometres before veering off to the left slightly, and I distinctly remember the order that the commander gave.

'Conn follow that ship' he said, causing me to nod as I began to follow what he'd said. But as I began to pilot the ship, I remember seeing something briefly shimmer under the light, and in a brief second decision, I veered starboard instead of port, like he'd ordered. Well, that was it. The prick started giving me a mouthful about how I purposely ignored his instructions, and how my action had now put the entire crew in jeopardy. Our beams were still firing at the ship we wanted me to follow, and I remember as he was giving me a bollocking, one of our beams struck where our ship was going to fly if I'd veered port like he wanted. A massive explosion went off, and we even felt a small shock wave come from it, with the ship rocking slightly. The Croxon had only gone and laid down a cloaked mine, and it was only because of the sun light shimmering off of it that we avoided it.

If I'd followed my orders blindly, I would have steered us right into it, and we'd be dead. I remember the look on the prick's face as we watched it, and of course I couldn't help the smug smile I grew as he turned bright red. He tried not to let it phase him for the rest of the simulation, and when we finished up, I remember the professor pointing it out.

'Cadet Roberts, well done for noticing the cloaked mine and actively avoiding it. We've had 5 other runs of these simulations over the day, and not one of them have been able to avoid that, you've done really well. As for you Cadet whatever' cause I can't remember his last name 'you need to less quick to reprimand those under your command, and instead learn to simply ask why they defied orders. If Cadet Roberts had done what you'd said, then you wouldn't have failed that simulation. It was you who put the ship in jeopardy, not her'

I'll always remember that, because of the look on the stupid prick's face, especially when we left the simulator. We all congratulated each other, and they all said how well I did, but he refused to look at me, mostly because of how embarrassed he was. He never spoke to me again after that" Camille shrugged as she finished, everyone else letting out a little chuckle at her story.

* * *

"I remember those training simulations. They're tense situations so you did do really well" Lucy pointed out, causing everyone to nod.

"Yeah, I for one am glad to know that we have someone qualified at the helm" James added, causing everyone to raise their drinks in the air.

"Amen to that" Jo said, causing them all to toast to that before talking a swig.

"And you said that this was your first posting?" Logan said, causing Camille to nod.

"Yep, I'm fresh out of the academy. I suppose my scores must have been good if they posted me on an experimental ship" she replied, causing everyone features to soften slightly.

"How are you finding it?" Logan continued, causing Camille to give a little shrug.

"Well, like I said earlier, I wasn't expecting to be in the position we're in, but I think I'm holding up ok. I'm used to being away from my parents for extended periods of time, especially with them doing long distance freight deliveries but at least then, I was able to call them about once a week for a chat. It's a little different not being able to call them at all."

"Well, if you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm always available" Logan said, causing her to smile up at him.

"And the same goes to me as well, for all of you" James added, causing Camille to smile up at him as well.

"Thanks guys"

"Don't mention it. We're all in the same position, and sometimes it's just nice to get stuff of your chest." Logan replied, before the room descended into silence as everyone reflected on their loved ones that are at home, not knowing what has happened to them.

"Anyway, that's enough of that!" James said, as he pulled himself up from the sofa. "Anyone want another drink" he asked, causing a few people to nod before James took their orders. Walking over to the replicator, James put in their orders and once they were synthesised, he passed everyone what they wanted before grabbing another bread stick and sitting down. "Who wants to go next?" the chief asked, causing everyone to glance around, more specifically at Carlos who started to sit up a little straighter.

"I suppose I can tell you why I became a tactical officer, although the reason is pretty simple. I love destroying stuff" the Latino began, causing everyone to let out hearty laughs as the atmosphere became more jovial.

"Is that seriously the reason?" Jo asked, causing Carlos to shrug.

"Part of it. The other part is that I like protecting people" he replied, taking another sip of his drink before he launched into his story.

* * *

"When I was a kid, I did like to destroy stuff, that parts not a lie. I remember I'd work my way around the house banging in stuff to see if it would collapse, and when I wouldn't, I bang on it harder to see if that had an impact. More than once, my mum had to pick me up and put me somewhere else in the house in order to stop me from doing it. But as I grew up, I remember it wasn't so much about seeing if things collapsed, and more about how durable things were. I used to love testing how strong materials were, and I would put them up against all sorts of different tests to see which ones were the best, sort of like my own little science experiments.

As I grew up, I remember always hearing about the materials that the UEF's ships were made of, and I became fascinated with it, looking at how strong and durable those materials were, not only to energy weapon impacts, but also to all of the pressures that space has. I remember watching a video of one of the UEF's ships getting close to a black hole, and for some reason, I was fascinated by how the hull copes under the stresses. I'd watch as some parts of the ship began to buckle and then I'd find out what material was used in that part of the ship so that I could compare it with other materials and parts of the ship. I was a weird kid" Carlos and everyone else letting out a small chuckle.

"But like I said, I also joined the UEF because I like protecting people, and that came around when my two younger siblings did. When I'd just turned 7, my mum gave birth to my brother and sister, who are twins. I remember holding them in my arms for the first time and seeing how small and innocent they were. It was that day on that I vowed to keep them safe and protected, and I always upheld that promise. As we were growing up, I made sure to look out for them the best I could, and whenever one of them got hurt, I'd always make sure patch them back up, and make sure they were ok. Wherever I was, I wanted to make sure that they knew I was always there for them and that I'd do whatever I could to keep them safe. When they first joined secondary school, I remember being so scared for them. Kids can be so mean, and I was so worried that one of them would run into trouble or would start to get bullied. I was probably a little over protective, but at the same time, I wanted to make sure they were safe.

I think there was really only one time when I had to properly intervene, and that's when my brother was being forced to hand over his homework to a couple of his classmates so that they could copy him. It sounds silly when I talk about it now, but I remember him coming home crying cause these lads had started to push him around a little bit, and when he tried to refuse they just started to insult him instead. Well, that was it. I saw red, and I remember I sat him down and told him that if he wanted, and only if he wanted, that I'd talk to them about it. I never planned to actually hit them or anything like that, but it was safe to say that I was a pretty big lad back then, so I would probably intimidate them a little if I did speak to them. But instead, I remember my brother shaking his head and asking if I could teach him how to stand up for himself, so that he could deal with them himself. So, I did my best as I tried to teach him some self defence moves in case they started to push him around again, but I also told him to do his best to just ignore them when they started to insult him.

'It'll only make it worse if you do retaliate' I told him, and I made sure that he understood that. I could tell that he felt so much better after that chat, but I of course just couldn't let it go. So, when we went to school then next day, I remember loitering by his form room at the end of the school day just in case anything happened, and I did need to intervene. I watched as he left his form room, and I remember hearing a few boys from his class shouting his name while my brother just ignored them. I felt so proud of him for listening to what I'd said, but that didn't stop them from running up to him, and grabbing him by his bag in order to stop him from walking away.

'So, you gonna give us the answers to the homework or not?' I remember the largest of the boys asking, and I could already feel the anger flaring inside me at this point.

'No, I'm not, so I'd appreciate it if you let me go' my brother replied with as he shook his bag slightly in order to free it from another boy's grasp. That's when the started to push him around slightly.

'Come on Garcia, you're just a little dumb ass with no friends. Why not help us, so we can be your friends. I mean, it's not like anyone else is going to be friends with you' the largest of the boy said as he started to push my brother quite aggressively. It was at that point that I started to walk over, but before I could get there, I remember my brother grabbing the largest boy's arm and twisting it slightly as my brother stood behind him.

'I tried to be nice, but you didn't listen, so maybe this will help. I won't give you my homework, so please leave' My brother to him, and I could see the pain on the larger boy's face.

'Ok, ok fine, whatever' the boy said, causing my brother to nod before he finally let the boy's arm drop. The three lads that were bothering him, quickly scuttled off looking incredibly defeated and I remember seeing the smile on my brother's face at the fact that he'd protected himself. So, as I discreetly as I could, I made my way to the front of the school and waited for him outside. When he finally got out of the door, I remember him spotting me and he ran up to me with a massive smile on his face before pulling me into a hug.

'Thank you so much' he said as he hugged me, and I couldn't help but smile back down at him as I hugged him back.

'Don't mention it, but what did I do?' I asked, playing dumb.

'Thank you for helping me yesterday' was all he replied with, and as we continued to hug, I remember the three boys leaving the school. I was quick to make eye contact with them, and I may have given them a slightly threatening gesture, so they knew never to mess with my brother again. All three of them looked terrified before they scuttled off, and when my brother finally stopped hugging me, they were gone from sight.

I remember when my sister joined us, and we started to walk home, my brother started to tell us both about what had happened. I was so proud of him for standing up for himself, and only practising violence when absolutely necessary, but I also felt a little sad because I started to realise that they no longer needed me to protect them. That's the reason I joined the UEF, so that I could make sure that someone always felt that someone out there was protecting them, instead of thinking that they have to go through stuff alone."

* * *

"That's so sweet" Camille said, letting out a small aww as she did so.

"Makes me wanna throw up" Lucy mumbled under her breath, causing Logan, James and Jo to let out a soft chuckle. "I bet you've got some good academy stories though. I remember going to some of the tactical cadet's parties, and they were always a rager" Lucy continued, causing Carlos to let out a hearty laugh.

* * *

"Oh yeah, I went to plenty of those. It was kinda difficult not to when your roommate was the one hosting them all. I remember one in particular and it was the party the night before graduation. My roommate decided it would be a great idea to take over one of the holobays used for the simulations you were talking about Camille, and turn it into a 'party ship' to quote his exact language. I remember turning up that night, to see the bridge of the USS Trace completely decorated with streamers, balloons and of course kegs of alcohol. I immediately knew that it was a bad idea to even be there, but I also knew that that would be the last time in a long time that I could do anything like that, so I decided to let loose and have fun for once. Boy, that was a big mistake. Loud music blared through the comms system of the ship, as we all played drinking games and danced about for the final time that we were all together before we graduated and began our training cruises the next day. It probably wasn't the best idea like I said, and I know a lot of us were hanging during our training cruises, but we were all having the time of our lives."

"I can't wait to see where this is going" James commented, causing Carlos to let out a chuckle.

"Trust me, it gets good" the Latino replied, before taking another sip of his drink. "So, there must have been about 500 of us by the time the party was in full swing, and I was so drunk that I didn't even notice the holobay getting bigger to accommodate that many people, so I just started to stumble about, trying to find where the drinks were when I remember the music turning itself off, and all the lights turning themselves on. Everyone let out a collective groan as this happened, and that's when I remember the door to the holobay opening as well as a starship captain walking into the room.

'What the hell is going on in here' I remember him shouting, and the whole place went silent as everyone stared at him petrified. 'You're all junior officers, and I didn't expect this kind of behaviour from you. You're all beginning your training cruises tomorrow, so you should be reading up on your assignments instead of partying like a bunch of animals. This type of activity can sit on your personal records as a mark' he continued to shout, and it was safe to say that I was thoroughly pissed, hence why I did what I did next.

'That's technically not true' I remember myself shouting, and the whole place felt like it went even quieter as everyone looked at me.

'Excuse me Cadet' I remember the captain saying, and he was staring directly at me by this point, so he knew it was me. Apparently that didn't stop me from saying what I said next.

'According to UEF regulation 149 dash 5, before graduation, a UEF junior officer is still recognised under academy rules, and according to the academy handbook under section 5, Cadets are able to partake in recreational activities so long as they do not damage the reputation of the academy or disrupt the local community. This party will not damage the reputation of the academy and it won't disrupt the local community as it's being held on campus, and the holobays are soundproof, meaning that no noise is leaving this room' I shouted back, causing the ship captain to anger quite quick.

'You're still trespassing on academy properly outside of regulated times' he shouted back, but I shook my head once again, finding more confidence to speak.

'Again, not true. Section 2 of the handbook states that the holobays can be used at any time of day, provided that notice is given to a senior member of staff, and I know that this holobay was registered for use at this time.'

'That regulation is only relevant if the holobay is being used for a training exercise'

'And it is, crowd control. It's helping train tactical officers in being able to control a large crowd, which may be under the influence, and during a poorly lit environment. The scenario is taking place on a bridge as that's a strategic location which is vulnerable to attack if not monitored properly' I shouted back, and I remember the look on the captain's face. He was absolutely livid that I'd outsmarted him, but he couldn't argue back with me, as everything I'd said was legitimate, so he'd just huffed and walked out completely humiliated.

Everyone cheered when that happened, and I remember the music coming back on, and the lights dimming before everyone began to chant my name as I was handed shots after shots, being crowned the hero of the party. It was safe to say that I was hung over pretty bad the next day, and I didn't even remember doing it. It was only when others started to congratulate me on it the next day that I'd realised what I'd done."

* * *

"And you actually managed to get away with it?" Camille asked, slightly in awe of what Carlos had said.

"Oh yeah. I mean, none of us were reprimanded for the party the next day, and when I looked up the protocols that I referenced, I was completely right. If anything, I think I was more impressed that I managed to remember all of the UEF's protocols while I was completely hammered." Carlos replied, and that caused everyone to let out a chuckle.

"I bet the training cruise the next day was utter hell though" Lucy commented, causing Carlos to nod.

"God it was. So many bright lights and loud noises. I was quite lucky however, as I didn't get the captain that came and shouted at us. A few of my friends did, and from the sound of it, he was extra harsh on them, almost like a punishment for what had happened. Boy, I'm grateful I didn't, he would have been a right dick to me" Carlos replied, causing everyone to shake their heads. "But yeah, that's pretty much me done, so who wants to go next?" he asked, but James was first to speak up.

"Why don't we take a little break. We can take a toilet break, and I'm sure we could do with a few more drinks and some snacks to keep us going for the rest of the evening" the chief said, causing everyone to nod as they all began to shuffle about, getting themselves sorted for the stories of the last three officers.

* * *

 **So there we have it! This chapter and the next are going to provide us with a chance to get to know everyone on the crew a little bit better, as I realised that I've introduced the characters but not really provided a lot of detail about them. The next chapter, whenever I write that, will be about Jo, Lucy and Logan! I have to admit, writing this chapter was definitely a challenge for me, as I'm not used to writing chapters of just pure dialogue, so this was certainly something new for me to do. Still, I think it kinda turned out ok, so let me know what you think!**

 **So, I want to give a massive thank you to Guest, Winterschild11 and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing the last chapter, which was ages ago because I'm the worst person ever, and I'm so glad you liked it, although the threat of RainbowDiamond's haunting my dreams was pretty frightening, especially after how stressed you were 😜 You also seemed to understand why I did what I did to Kames, but come on, we all know that that whole separation thing isn't going to last long! And don't worry, Kendall will return soon... well as soon as I write the next chapter 😜 Also, just want to add, thank you for saying that the doctor stuff was easy to understand, as I had 'fun' trying to learn that myself for this chapter, so I'm glad I managed to implement it well, and that I also love The Good Place! I felt like that was an important detail to add haha. Also, I too, would so marry James!**

 **Anywho, I've said 'also' a lot, and I hope you guys are having a good week, and that you're all enjoying Valentine's Day! This year, I am spending it with my friends, eating pizza and watching Mamma Mia, so it should be pretty interesting! I will see you all on Monday for the next chapter of Blizzard and Rush & Response will continue as of next week, don't worry, but I thought since I haven't done one of these in a while, and it's a special day, I'll upload it! Anyway, I'm rambling now, so until then,**

 **TTFN 😃🚀**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi Guys and finally, welcome back to The New Frontier! So yes, this chapter is like...4 months late but I've been busy ok! 😜 Whatever the case, it's here now, so I hope you settle in and enjoy Jo's, Logan's and Lucy's stories! Oh, and I'm sorry in advance for the massive blocks of text! I have tried to cut it down as best as I can**

* * *

As everyone settled back into their original seats, drinks in hand and a new supply of snacks ready, James couldn't help the smile that had grown on his face. If the chief was being honest with himself, he'd expected tonight to be a disaster. He thought that nobody was going to indulge his curiosity to learn about them, and instead, the night would have been filled with talk about their predicament as well as 'how screwed they were' but the fact that the opposite had happened meant that James was elated. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, and the fact that they were sharing their stories was a good sign to James. Shuffling in his seat so that he was comfortable, he spoke up.

"So, who wants to go next?" he asked, causing everyone to glance around for a brief second.

"I'll go," Jo said, setting her drink down on the table before grabbing a handful of snacks quickly.

"Yeah, I have to admit, I'm curious about the girl who can seemingly do everything. You were able to vent the Omega from the flash drive, you were also able to cure the away team of that disease" James said, causing a small grin to grow on Jo's face

"I won't take full credit for that, the doctor did quite a bit" Jo replied, causing Logan to grin at what she'd say.

"Yeah, thank you very much!" Logan replied, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle, a grin growing on James' face at the jovial atmosphere that had developed. "But, I will agree with James, I am curious as to how you became so well rounded" Logan added, causing Jo to let out a little shrug, before taking a quick swig of her drink.

* * *

"Well, I guess it began when I was younger. In school, I was fascinated by space and the universe and everything. I found it so insane that all of this could have been made out of nothing, and I just became completely absorbed in it. I remember asking for a telescope one Christmas, and when I opened it on Christmas day, I was just so excited. It was only a little cheap thing, you could barely see Mars with it, but it was enough for me to look out into space and pick out some objects in the distance. I would spend hours at night just sat there, looking out of my window trying to pick out planets, stars, nebulas, black holes, spaceships, just anything that I could see, and I also spent a lot of time looking at the Moon colony as well, wondering what life was like up there. Turns out, it isn't really any different than it is here, but I didn't know that at the time" Jo began, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle.

"But that was really only the start of my curiosity, as when I got into secondary school, and we started to learn about biology and chemistry and stuff, my interested peaked once again. There was just something about it, like nature had just created this perfectly functioning system and I just fell in love with it. I'd spend biology and chemistry lessons completely absorbed in what the teacher was saying, taking as many notes as I possibly could, and in my other lessons, mostly historical literature, I'd spend the time just fascinating about the universe and how it worked. How in the world had it developed such a thriving ecosystem, and on top of that, how had it managed to do it for so many planets in the universe"

"I remember science lessons in school. I didn't pay too much attention to them" Carlos said, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle at the security officer.

"See, I was the complete opposite. I will admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of Physics, but that's mostly because I didn't understand a lot of it at the time." Jo replied, causing everyone to agree with how confusing.

"So, did anything in particular make you want to become a science officer, or was it just a combination of everything?" Logan asked, causing Jo to shuffle slightly as she made herself comfortable.

"I always remember the moment I decided that I wanted to be a science officer, and it was during a trip in secondary school. They took our class to Mars for the day, as part of our 'Alien Worlds' class, and I remember on the shuttle ride there, I sat next to the window trying to take as many photos as I could so that I could analyse what I saw in them later. But when we landed on the planet, however, all of that was forgotten about. I just became absorbed in everything from the cities that they'd built to the wastelands that still existed in some places. One of the tasks of the day was for us to go out and analyse the 'native' lifeforms to the planet. Basically, our teacher wanted us to go into the city and explore some of the flora that had grown since Mars' colonisation by humans. So I did that, for about 10 minutes, but I quickly became bored. Sure, I loved seeing how the species had adapted from their counterparts on Earth, but to be fair, with all of the terraforming that had happened in these areas, there wasn't much if a difference"

"So, what you'd do?" James asked, taking a sip of his drink after he spoke.

"I may have headed out of the city completely. I knew the atmosphere was breathable, and I knew there wasn't anything too dangerous in the local vicinity, so I gave way to my curiosity and headed out. I'd remember reading all of these entries from the 21st century about whether bacterial life existed on Mars, and I thought to myself that if it had of done, then surely it would have evolved a little bit by now, so I went exploring. Looking back at it now, it was so stupid of me, but I found a small hole in the surface and I decided to go down into it and explore. I had nothing, other than a small torch, and a handheld scanner, but that didn't stop me. I must have gotten, what, about 20-30 metres under the surface before I finally felt that I was deep enough, and when I took a scan, I remember picking up some bacteria. I mean, it's clear to me now that this stuff was introduced by the human colonisation, as the bacteria discussed in the 21st Century was about 600 metres underground, but at the time I didn't care, I was just elated to have found something. I took so many scans before I finally went back up to the surface, and I remember the bollocking I got from my teacher when I told them what I did, but I didn't care. In my mind, I was a proper scientist for the first time, and I remember the rush I got from thinking that. At that moment, I knew I wanted to experience that excitement for the rest of my life, so I decided to become a science officer. What better way to indulge my curiosity of the universe and the organisms that inhabited it?"

* * *

"That's so sweet" Camille cooed, causing a small blush to grow on Jo's cheeks.

"I remember those field trips" Lucy spoke up, causing everyone to nod. "Looking back on it now, we were probably better off staying on Earth and studying the planets in the textbook, as they were practically a replication of Earth anyway" Lucy continued, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle as a few of them took a sip of their drinks.

"To be fair, you're not wrong. I remember the first time that I landed on an actual alien world and suffice to say, it was not what I expected it to be" Jo replied, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow at her.

* * *

"So, it was my academy days, and for some reason, they decided to do something a little different with my class, offering us the opportunity to investigate a select number of planets for possible future colonisation. It was our job to review the planets they'd selected and then make a decision as to which one we thought they should colonise. So, the first planet we turned up on was a class K planet"

"That's a completely barren planet with no atmosphere right?" Carlos asked, causing everyone to nod at his question.

"Yeah, that's right. Just imagine Mars, before we terraformed it. I remember having to gear up in an environmental suit, and I was so excited to get down onto the planet that despite how big the suit was, I essentially skipped down the corridor to the transporter room. I mean, this was the first time I was actually going to be on a proper alien planet, and I was absolutely thrilled to be able to get down there, and actually see what one looked like. So, there was me, a trained security officer who was the commander of our little away team, a trainee engineering and a trainee medic, and I remember the look on everyone else's face when we transported down to the planet.

As you'd expect, there were no signs of life on the surface, but it was the most barren planet I've ever seen. We'd transported down right in the middle of this massive section of flat land, and all you could see in the distance was continuous flatness. No hills, no mountains, not even any big rocks, there was nothing, it was just completely flat, and let's just say that the others weren't impressed. I remember the trainee engineering asking if there was any point in even bother to consider this planet, because of how empty it was, but the security guy told us to just do what we were supposed to. So, the engineer set up this little drone that would be used to survey the surrounding land, while I began to try and find some indication of the geology of the planet. So, I pointed my weapon towards the ground and began to carve out a small hole just like they'd taught us. The one thing I forgot to do however was scan the ground beneath me to look out for any underground caves, or aquifers, so as soon as I shot the weapon at the ground, the whole thing began to collapse."

"Oh, god, you didn't fall in did you?" Camille asked, causing Jo to shake her head as she took a sip of her drink.

"Luckily, I wasn't pointing the weapon straight down, and I was just able to avoid the hole that it had formed, but as soon as I looked down into it, I was in awe. I distinctly remember our commander trying to give me a bollocking about the whole thing, but I just ignored every word that he was saying as I climbed into this hole, and to be fair, it wasn't far behind when he saw that it as well."

"So, what was it?" Logan asked, completely enamoured with the story.

"It was an aquifer just below the planet's surface and surrounding it was a whole host of flora. I'm talking plants like, fungi, different types of mosses, everything that you could imagine. Of course, I was completely in my element with it all, so I basically jumped right into the water and began to study and analyse everything about them. How they'd get their energy from the sun as the rock on the planet's surface was slightly translucent, allowing a small portion of the light through, and how they were drawing from the water supply in order to get the oxygen that they needed to survive. They were completely opposite the plants of Earth, needing oxygen to grow while producing carbon dioxide, and they were naturally performing electrolysis to get it. They were incredible."

"Wait, I remember hearing about these" Logan spoke up, causing everyone to glance over at him. "Yeah, I remember reading about how, because of their inherent electrical current, they could be used to adapt some of the equipment that we used today so that they aren't reliant on power cells in case something goes wrong. God, what were they called"

"Don't say it" Jo mumbled under her breath, but it went unheard by Logan.

"It's something like Electrica Darrius," Logan said, before tilting his head to the side slightly. "As Darrius is the guy who discovered them" Logan continued, causing Jo to roll her eyes as she took a swig of her drink.

"Lieutenant Commander Darrius was the security officer that we had with us, and of course, he was the one who reported it back to the ship, saying that we'd found this entire ecosystem under the planet's surface. Our ship then got onto the UEF government, asking them to send proper science ships out to the planet, as they didn't think that something like this would be discovered.

Anyway, the whole thing was a huge ordeal, and when we got back on the ship, Darrius began to take all of the credit for everything that went down, saying that he was the one who made the tactical decision the fire at the ground to discover the geology when he found the aquifer etc. Of course, with this being my training cruise, I was still young, and he was a superior officer, so I didn't want to go against what he was saying, even though it was all lies. Plus, I wasn't in this business for the glory, I was in it for the thrill of discovering new species and that's exactly what I'd gotten from it."

* * *

"That's…both incredible and sad at the same time," Lucy said, causing Jo to shrug as she took a swig of her drink.

"I've still got the scanner that I used to collect the data on. I keep it as almost a reminder of why I got into this"

"And of what jackasses' superior officers can be," Carlos said, before turning to James, with a smug look on his face. "No offence meant Lieutenant Commander" he added, causing James to roll his eyes as he let out a laugh.

"I'll try not to take that personally" James replied, causing everyone to let out a light chuckle.

"But yeah, that's it really. When I graduated, I was put on a science ship that went around surveying already discovered planets for any changes in their ecology, which was alright, but it was missing the exploration part that I loved. That's when I heard that they were looking for science officers to sign up for an undisclosed mission, and I knew I had to take it as a secret mission would definitely fulfil both aspects of what I loved, and now, here I am" Jo finished, popping another snack in her mouth and eating it before speaking up. "So, who wants to go next?"

"I suppose I can go" Logan spoke up, causing everyone to glance over at the doctor. "Although I have to admit, my tales aren't nearly as glamorous as your ones" the doctor continued, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle as Logan took one final sip of his drink before he began.

* * *

"So, I was six and away with my parents for my dad's shore leave. He'd been working as an engineer on the U.S.S Pelican for about eight months by this point, and we'd been on board with him, so it was safe to say that we all wanted to get away from the ship for a little bit and actually be down on a planet for once. So, my parents decided that they wanted to head down to Botera for a week or two. We'd heard about the planet on the news, with people saying that it was one of the most beautiful planets ever discovered and all of that jazz, so we all thought that it was a great idea."

"Oh god, I think I know where this is going" James spoke up, causing Logan to glance over at the brunet with a sad smile on his face.

"We were one of the earlier shuttles to land on the planet that day, so the staff helped us into the house we were staying in for the two weeks, and we got settled, sorting out our clothes and all of that stuff. It was perfect, we were finally able to spend some proper time together as a family, and my dad was finally having a break from his usual duties.

Since we were on the planet pretty early and my parents hadn't really booked anything for that day, they decided that we should head down to Arna beach, and just relax for the day with them relaxing and tanning on the beach, while I could build sandcastles and paddle in the water, you know, all of the typical holiday stuff. God, we must have been down there for hours with hundreds of people around us, and of course, we didn't know anything about it at the time, so we were all completely happy and relaxed. It wasn't until the next day that I started to show the symptoms." Logan paused to take a sip of his drink, relieving the memories as he spoke.

"I'd woken up with an itchy rash, so as a six-year-old child would usually do, I went to see my parents about it. My mum was a little concerned about it at the time, but she also knew that it could just be a load of things. I could have been bitten by something the day before, which could have caused a small rash to flare up or it could have just been the bedding in my room which I was having a small allergic reaction to, so it could have been anything.

I remember her replicating some anti-rash cream which she applied, and I was already feeling so much better after that, so we went out, and did what we had planned for the day, which I think was exploring the planet via a hovercraft that they'd hired for the day. Throughout the day, mum would ask how I was feeling, and she'd apply more cream in the hopes that the rash would go down and disappear pretty quickly.

The coughing came the next day, with me constantly feeling like I had something in my throat. This is where my parents started to become a little more concerned, but for all they knew at the time, it could have just been a cold. Again, my mum replicated some cough medicine, which made me feel a lot better at first, but the rash cream that she was applying was no longer working, so when I wasn't focusing on my cough, I was scratching myself because my skin felt like it was on fire. Of course, it was the third day when my parents finally received the news, that the whole planet of Botera had been quarantined because of an outbreak of the Zebraxian plague"

"Oh god, I remember that outbreak" Camille spoke up, giving Logan a chance for a small break. "I remember the Condor getting a message saying that we were to avoid that system at all costs, and that if we had any cargo from the planet, it should be quarantined and that we should contact the closest UEF starship immediately" she continued, causing Logan to let out a little nod before taking a sip of his drink.

"It was a nasty strain of the virus and unfortunately, someone who was carrying the virus had managed to get onto the planet. Of course, the disease only affects children, so any adults that were alone visiting the planet were told to stay put for the time being, while any parents with children who were showing symptoms were encouraged to take them to the Botera General Hospital, and my parents were one of the first on the shuttle to take me to the hospital.

I remember being split up from them pretty much as soon as I arrived in the hospital and I was taken away to a ward, filled with kids who also had the plague. There must have been at least 50 of us on my ward, and at the time, they're looked to be about 100 odd wards on my floor but now, of course, we actually know the scale of it. About 100 million kids were infected just on Botera alone, and it was about 50 million off-world, on starships scattered around the quadrant."

"I remember Earth at the time" James spoke up, seeing that the doctor was starting to become a little emotional over the story he was telling. "The whole planet was on lockdown. No one was allowed off or on the planet, and ordinary ships weren't allowed to enter or leave orbit, even the ones that had been checked and had no signs of the disease on. It was only medical ships that could leave Earth, and they weren't allowed to return" The chief continued, causing everyone to nod as they reflected on what was being said.

"So, obviously you got cured, but what happened? I mean, if that were me, it would have put me off becoming a doctor, not encouraged me to become one" Carlos said, causing Logan to let out a little chuckle at the tactical officer's words.

"I have to admit, while I had the plague, I certainly didn't want to become a doctor, I just remember feeling like I never wanted to be ill again or go anywhere near Botera again, and I felt that way for the good two months that I was infected."

"So what changed?" Lucy asked, before taking a swig of her drink, everyone else nodding as they were all engrossed in the story.

"It was the day that I was cured. I distinctly remember a medical student coming round to give me the autospray with the 'medicine that would make me better' and the smile on the student's face was such a relief to see. Everyone had been so sombre during the whole thing, which of course was to be expected but seeing this student smiling for the first time in months made me feel so happy. After that, I was finally able to see my family again for the first time in about a month, and the smiles on their faces were huge. I just remember thinking that a doctor had caused all of this to happen, that a doctor had caused me and my family to be so happy after so many months of horror, and I wanted to be able to do that for another family.

As I grew up, I had my heart set on becoming a doctor, in the hopes that I could make someone as happy as that medical student made me, and it turned out that I became fascinated by the concept of microorganisms. I was so baffled by the idea that something so small could cause so much harm to the body, so I began to study everything like mad. Similar to you Jo, I became obsessed with biology, but mostly the human anatomy part of it, and then when I got accepted into the academy, I enrolled straight into the medical programme.

As you could expect, it was a lot of hard work, learning all the different parts of the body, as well as the different diseases, viruses and that stuff, but it's always worth it when I see the smile on my patient's face or their families face when I tell them that they're going to be ok" Logan finished, glancing up at everyone after realising that his eyes had been trained to be ground since he'd began telling the story.

* * *

It seemed that everyone else was also glancing down the floor at the story, each of them with a small smile on their faces. Camille was the first one to speak up, breaking the silence that had formed in the room. "That's so sweet Logan" was all she said, causing everyone to nod along with what she'd said, finally glancing up from the floor.

"And I can only imagine the joy that you've brought to so many families" James added, causing a small smile to grow on Logan's face.

"Thank you" Logan replied, before taking a large sip of his drink. "Of course, you don't always get a happy ending, and that's when the job becomes really difficult. I remember one of the first times it nearly happened, and it hit me really hard"

"If it's too difficult, you don't have to talk about it now" Jo spoke up, causing Logan to shake his head.

"It's alright, I'm used to talking about it now, and thankfully, the guy is still alive to this day, but it was the realisation more than anything else" Logan replied, taking one last sip of his drink before speaking up once again, everyone intently listening to what the doctor had to say.

* * *

"So, it was my second posting, and I was aboard the U.S.S Devon serving as a trainee doctor, but I was basically a nurse. At the time, I was analysing someone's tests results for something when we heard the captain's voice come over the comm, saying that the U.S.S Harriet had crash-landed on a planet in a nearby system and that we were being dispatched to essentially mount a rescue mission.

The captain ordered everyone in sickbay, which was the chief medical officer, me and a nurse since the Harriet was only a small ship, to report to the shuttle bay and when we arrived we were told that we were being sent down to planet to take care of any wounded while the crew tried to figure out what had happened, as well as the best way to transport any survivors off of the surface. Apparently, the transporters couldn't get a lock on anyone in the crash, hence why we were being sent down by shuttle. Really, that should have been clue one as to what had happened, but I'm getting distracted" Logan began, pausing to take a breath.

"So, as we began to fly down to the planet's surface, our shuttle was hit by a massive electrical storm in the upper atmosphere, one that hadn't been there before, and it caused a massive power outage in the shuttle, knocking it completely offline. I remember our pilot trying his best to try and bring the power back online and just before we hit the planet's surface, he managed to get the front boosters working which slowed our descent a little bit, but not enough to stop us from crash landing onto the planet as well.

I remember waking up with a banging headache from where I'd been thrown out of my chair, but as I looked around, I was one of the lucky ones. Our pilot had been killed on impact, and the CMO was still in his seat at the front of the shuttle, but he was unconscious, not that I knew it at the time. I remember panicking so much at first, freaking out over what had happened, but I knew that I had to try and remember by UEF training. The nurse next to me was stirring, so I knew that she wasn't in as bad of a position as the CMO was, so I made my way to the front of the shuttle, silently hoping that he wasn't dead.

The first thing I did was checked his pulse, and I let out a massive sigh when I finally felt it, it was weak, but it was there. My head was still pounding at this point, but I knew that I just had to remain focused, and try not to let it get in the way. After all, I was the highest ranking officer at this point, so I knew I needed to be decisive. After I'd asked how the nurse was doing, I remember trying to come up with a plan, and I thought the best cause of action would be to try and figure out how far away from the Harriet we'd crashed. It was clear that the CMO needed immediate medical attention, and I also knew that if the Devon was looking for us, it would probably start looking from the Harriet, so I used the scan data we'd collected of the local area on the way down, and found that we were about an hour's walk away from the crash.

It was a fair distance, but I also knew that it was probably our only hope of making sure that the CMO survived. Thankfully, a lot of the supplies we were transporting to the Harriet had survived our crash, so I was able to stabilise the CMO as best I could, as well as give myself some painkillers for the headache, and with the nurse and I loaded up with as much stuff as we could carry, we began to make our way to the Harriet, carrying the CMO as we did so"

* * *

"God, that must have been terrifying," Jo said, causing Logan to nod as he reached over to grab a handful of snacks. "I have to admit; I've been lucky enough to never been in a shuttle crash"

"I've been in one. They're not fun at all" Carlos spoke up, causing everyone to glance over at him. "And I have to admit Doc, you did well to be that decisive in a situation like that. Luckily enough for me, my commanding officer was awake and alert, so he was able to help me through what was going on. I don't think I could have been as decisive as you were if it weren't for him"

"So what happened when you reached the Harriet then?" James asked, causing everyone to turn their focus back to the doctor, who was just finishing up his snacks.

Swallowing what was in his mouth, Logan began his story again.

* * *

"So, when we arrived at the Harriet, I remember the first thing we did was put the CMO down for a brief second. My head was still pounding away like mad, so it was clear to me at that point that I'd gotten a concussion from the crash, but I also knew that until the Devon found it, we were pretty much on our own. Our communicators weren't working, so they were no way of alerting the Devon of our situation. For all we knew, they still thought that we'd made it ok and that nothing was wrong. I remember glancing around at the Harriet, and that's when I realised it was a Juilliard class ship, which I'd served on during my first assignment, so I began to try and count how many of the decks were left on the crashed ship.

Sickbay was on deck 4, so I was hoping that it hadn't been crushed by the impact, and thankfully it hadn't so that helped restore a little bit of my motivation. After talking to the nurse, we both decided that it would probably be best if we tried to get the CMO up to sickbay in the Harriet. If the place wasn't completely destroyed, then it would have the best facilities for us to treat the doctor, but that was a big if, as the ship wasn't in the best state" Logan began, taking a sip of the new drink he'd grabbed.

"As we made our way to a hole in the side of the Harriet, I remember a couple of her officers running up to us, and the smiles on their faces at the fact that rescue had arrived made me smile for a brief second as well. Of course, as soon as they say the CMO in our arms, they rushed to help and thankfully, they'd told us that sickbay wasn't completely destroyed in the crash, but that they'd lost pretty much all of their medical staff in the crash and that they were relying on someone with a year's medical experience to try and patch up the wounded.

To put it bluntly, it was a right shit show, and I knew that they were expecting the nurse and me to try and fix the whole thing. Thankfully we were able to get to the sickbay pretty quickly, and as soon as we arrived, the person with the one year's experience came running up to us, saying that she couldn't cope with any more patients at the moment and that she was 'already doing everything she could' but when we told her that we were a trainee doctor and a nurse, she brightened up a little bit, helping us put the CMO on the table. The situation got even worse when I asked them to hand me a scanner, however.

'They're not working. Something about this planet is killing the electrics' the woman said to me, and I remember the panic beginning to set in again. I was still a trainee at this point, plus I was heavily concussed so I thought that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to identify what the CMO had wrong with him, but I also knew that if I didn't, he was going to die" Logan paused, taking another sip of his drink before he continued talking again.

"I remember taking a deep breath, trying my best to focus on the CMO and what I could visually diagnose. He'd gotten a few cuts and scraps from the crash, but I remember distinctly looking at his left-hand side, which had significant bruising. I told the nurse to get me a blood pressure machine, and I remember she came back with one of these really old ones. Still, I ran the test on the CMO, and when his blood pressure came back low, I knew he was suffering from internal bleeding and that I'd have to operate to repair it. My head was still pounding at this point, but I continued to soldier on, grabbing all the equipment I'd need. Because the electrics weren't working, I had to use a load of older equipment, like an actual scalpel rather than a laser one, which made it far more difficult, but we did it.

With the help of nurse and the one year trainee, I was able to stop the bleeding and patch up his other wounds, plus help out the rest of the crew of the Harriet that was injured. When we finally got off of the planet, we were all transported to a medical ship that had been sent to accompany the Devon, and I remember collapsing right on the transporter pad. When I woke up in sickbay a day later, I remember the captain of the Devon standing over me.

He told me that everyone I'd helped on the planet had managed to survive, including the CMO, and he'd told me that he'd put a personal commendation in my profile, but at the time, I was bothered about that. I just remember the feeling while I was down on the planet, knowing that if I didn't do anything, then the CMO would have died. It was a shocking experience, and it definitely helped me grow both as a physician and as a person."

* * *

"Wow, that's…wow," James said first, rubbing his hand across his forehead. "You've definitely had some experiences Doc, and I have to admit, I'm grateful that you're sharing them with us"

"It's only fair since everyone else was" Logan replied, a small, subtle smile growing on his face at James' words.

"Well, I for one, am glad to have Logan onboard. At least we know that we have the best physician in the entire UEF onboard" Lucy said, holding her drinking up into the air.

"Hear hear!" Everyone else, bar Logan, replied, holding their drinks into the air before taking a swig of them, a small blush growing on Logan's face. The room went silent for a few seconds, each of them reflecting on what had been said in the evening so far, and that's when Lucy let out a deep breath. "I suppose it's my turn now then" she began, causing everyone to glance over at her. "Although, I will say now, that I have nothing that compares to that" she continued, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle.

* * *

"I have to admit, I didn't really know that I wanted to be an operations officer until I'd actually joined the UEF academy, something that I was ever actually planning on doing" Lucy began, causing shock to grow on everyone's face.

"What, you weren't going to join the UEF?" Carlos asked, causing Lucy to shake her head as she took a sip of her drink.

"Not at first, although to be fair, I didn't know what I actually wanted to do with my life at the time. I was young and kinda rebellious, so I didn't really try at school. Instead, I just messed about, not bothering to learn anything"

"So, what changed?" Jo asked, causing Lucy to let out a little chuckle, as she glanced down at the floor briefly.

"If I'm being completely honest, then it was the fact that I was arrested" she replied, causing everyone to look at her in shock once again.

"I'm sorry, you were arrested?" James asked, causing a small blush to grow on Lucy's face.

"I'm not proud of it or anything, but yeah, I was arrested. I got into a bar fight with a UEF junior office, who was being pretty handsy with me, and I was thrown into a UEF jail because of it. I was 16 at the time, so I wasn't even at legal drinking age, and I remember this UEF captain coming in to speak to me. I still had the whole 'I don't care' attitude when he started talking to me, and at the time, I remember I didn't even care about what he was saying.

'Why are you in here' He asked me, and I remember rolling my eyes at him.

'Cause I've been arrested' I replied, but the captain shook his head.

"Why are _you_ in here' he asked me again, this time putting emphasis on you, and at the time, I didn't get what he was trying to say, so I was just sarcastic back to him.

'Cause _I've_ been arrested' I replied once again, and I remember him letting out a sigh as he pulled out this record he had on me.

'Lucy Stone, age 16, currently failing out of school' I remember him reading from it, and of course, I got really bitchy towards him about it, because I felt like he was essentially attacking me.

'What's that got to do with anything' I snapped back, but he didn't seem fussed by the attitude, instead, he just closed my file.

'What are you doing with your life?' he asked me next, and I remember that there was absolutely no judgement in his tone or anything. It was genuine concern, something that I hadn't actually heard from someone in a long time.

'Whatever the fuck I want to do' I replied to him, still trying to keep up this bravo attitude that I had, but I remember it slowly crumbling as he continued to speak. 'I've seen your aptitude test scores Lucy, and you're a bright kid. If you just applied yourself to your work, then you could really do whatever you wanted to do in your life' he said back to me, and I just remember staring at him with this look on my face, as if I didn't care but inside, I was in turmoil.

'Tell you what. This time, I'll let you off with a warning. But, just think about what I said. If you apply yourself and applied for the UEF, I think you could become one of your brightest officers' he said, before pushing the button that dropped the forcefield keeping me in. Of course, as soon as it dropped, I stormed out of the station and straight home, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get his voice and his words out of my head. That was probably the first time that someone had something like that to me and as much as I didn't believe it, I kept thinking about it. I remember the next morning when I was getting ready, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I couldn't help but just think about what I was actually doing with my life, much like he'd said, and I realised that I was actually just throwing it away" Lucy paused, taking a sip of her drink as she did so.

"So, what did you do?" Camille asked, causing a small smile to grow on Lucy's face as she spoke up again.

"I decided to change. I started to apply myself at school, and I actually found out that I loved learning about all this technical stuff. I became fascinated by starships, and how they worked. Everything from the equations that made the flash drive possible, to how power transfer worked and what made it possible. I don't know, but I just found it all so fascinating, and I found that when I applied myself to the work, I was actually really good at it. In the two years before I graduated school, I managed to turn myself around completely, and by the end of my school career, I was in the top 5 of my class. I remember looking out into the crowd, trying to find my parents but they weren't there. Instead, however, I saw the captain that had talked to me that day, and I remember the look that was on his face, it was pride, he was proud of me. After graduation, I remember going up to him.

'See, I told you, you could do it' was the first thing he said to me, and I remember rolling my eyes at him as a joke.

'Thank you' I said to him. 'You changed my life that night, and I don't know how to thank you'

'You don't need to thank me' he replied, and I remember him placing a hand onto my shoulder, almost like he was a proud dad. 'But you could always apply for the UEF. We always need talented officers like you' he said, and I remember nodding at him, before he patted me on my shoulder once more and walked away, leaving me stood there.

I still had no clue who this man was, but at this point, he was more of a parent figure than any of my parents actually were, so I followed what he said, and joined the UEF academy. I still didn't know what I wanted to do at this point, but I was always drawn towards the more technical side of stuff. As the year went on, I remember thinking that I was going to become an engineer as I thought that was the only avenue that I could go down but when the week came to choose my specialisation, I just couldn't do it.

That's when I was called into Captain McMillan's office. I remember being so confused as to why I was being called into this captain's office, but when I walked in, I realised that it was the guy that seemed to keep popping up in my life. He told me that he'd noticed that I hadn't chosen a specialisation yet, so I told him that I was still a little confused as to what I wanted to be. That's when he suggested that I became an operations office. He told me all about it, about what it would entail, and what my job would be, but he also said that if I didn't like it, it was easy enough to transfer into the engineering specialism, which was a relief to hear as I still wasn't one hundred per cent sold. In the end, I decided to trust him and put it down.

I mean, he'd never been wrong before, and he'd given me actual advice that I could follow, so I went for it, and surprise surprise, he wasn't wrong again. I feel in love with it, being able to indulge in my love for engineering, while also still doing the whole science side of it as well. Throughout my academy days, Captain McMillan became almost like my advisor, with him helping me through some of the more difficult decisions I had to make. But yeah, that's why I became an operations officer" Lucy finished, taking a massive sip of her drink as she did so.

* * *

"I still can't believe you that got arrested," Carlos said, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle, while Lucy rolled her eyes. "But that's definitely one hell of a story"

"Thanks" Lucy replied, a small blush growing on her face.

"I bet you've got some good stories as the operations officer. I mean, that console is constantly lighting up with all sorts of alerts and warning." James said, causing Lucy to let out a little shrug.

"I've got one story that I always tell everyone, but it certainly wasn't the consoles fault" Lucy replied, causing everyone to raise their eyebrows at her.

Taking another sip of her drink, Lucy began.

* * *

"So, it was my first assignment and I was an ensign at the time, stationed on a Link class vessel, which was actually pretty new at the time, so I was still getting used to it. I remember that we were on a routine survey of the Kabutcha star system when we came up against a Broctor ship. I remember the captain asking me to hail them, which I thought I was able to do no problem, but when they didn't respond, the panic began to set in. Turns out at the time, I had hailed them properly, and they just weren't responding, but I was convinced I'd done something wrong. That's when they started to fire on us, and we were caught with our shield's down, so they began to do some real damage. I remember the whole ship shaking as they blew out a couple of decks on our port side and they'd also managed to blow out some shield emitters, so even when they were up, they weren't running at peak efficiency.

I remember the Captain of the ship, throwing around all sorts of orders, telling the Conn officer to perform evasive manoeuvres, whiles she asked the officer at tactical to fire at will. At first, it seemed that she was pretty much ignoring me, focusing mostly on the tactical console to make sure that we just kept firing, but that's when things got difficult. One of the Broctor's beams struck engineering straight on and in order to avoid a flash breach, engineering had to completely shut down the drive, causing the ship to fall onto emergency power.

At this point, I was still panicking. I knew all of the procedures and protocols that I was supposed to follow, but with the new console that I was faced with, I still wasn't sure how to do any of them. I remember being so thankful because tactical was still the main focus on the captain's orders, but then we hit another power fluctuation. Obviously, the first thing the captain tried to do was contact Engineering, but when she couldn't get through, she ordered me to run down here and see what was going on, which in some sense was a relief, as I still wasn't sure how to operate the console. My opinion changed, however, when I got down to engineering and saw what was going on.

Half of the room was on fire, and the other half was completely shut down, with very few of the consoles working. I remember running right in there and grabbing hold of an extinguisher as I began to help put out some of the fires, while others helped their friends get to sickbay, or to try and restore some of the power to the consoles. When the fire had been put out, it was then that I learn that the chief engineer had died, due to one of the consoles exploding, and that because I was a bridge officer, I was the senior officer in the room. God, I don't know how you do it, James, giving orders out like that, in a time of crisis pretty much daily, as I completely panicked and just told them to continue doing what they were doing.

I remember myself running over to a console, and taking a deep breath as it flashed to life in front of me, and boy did I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that this console was similar to the ones I'd been familiar with at the academy. I got right to work, sorting out the down communications, and I was also able to consult with some of the officers where we actually managed to get partial power up and running again without even having to use the flash drive. Let's just say that we definitely broke a few UEF guidelines on that one, but it did the job and that's when I was recalled back up to the bridge, and my anxiety kicked in again.

With main power partially back up again, I remember the first thing the captain did was order me to transfer a portion of that power to weapons and I remember just being so confused, especially after using a console that I was familiar with down in engineering. Still, I tried not to let it get the best of me, and I tried to think about what to do and all of that. Of course, with the Broctor still firing at us, and the tactical officer reading out the dropping shield strengths, I just panicked once again and began to slide the dials everywhere.

I just remember the aftermath as I did so. The tactical officer reported that power to shields had disappeared completely, so I looked over at him with this look of pure panic on my face. That's when we all heard this massive bang, but when the ship didn't shake, we all looked over at the viewscreen, where we saw this beam fire from our ship, which was so powerful that it caused the Broctor's shields to drop completely.

Apparently, in my panic, I'd manage to overload one of the beam emitters, transferring about 300x times the regular power output to it, causing it to essentially fire this massive burst of energy at the Broctor ship, causing their systems to short circuit. I remember the look on the Captain's face as I began to frantically apologise for what I'd done, and she just chuckled slightly, saying she wasn't quite sure what I was sorry for since I'd just saved the entire ship.

When we were finally able to communicate with the Broctor, we arranged a peace agreement between our two ships, saying that the most important thing at the moment was making sure to get them up and running again, and I remember the captain suggesting that while engineering works on that, I should read through the instructional manual for the console, causing me to become pretty embarrassed. Once I'd read through that, I realised that this console actually wasn't as different as I thought it was, and that it was just my anxiety getting to me. But yeah, that's it really"

"I can't imagine that happening" Carlos spoke up again, letting out a little chuckle as he did so. "I mean, you must have completely vaporised that emitter, pushing that much power through it"

"Oh yeah, it was completely fried, we had to return to a space dock to get it fixed. Thankfully though, we were heading that way anyway, so I didn't feel too guilty about it" Lucy replied, causing everyone to let out a little chuckle.

* * *

As the room descended into silence, everyone began to reflect on the evening they'd had, and it was safe to say that they were all grateful that James had invited them into his quarters for it to happen. With each of them now knowing each other's stories, it was starting to feel less like a bunch of people that had been forced together and more like a bunch of friends that were working through a difficult situation. The sense of joy only seemed to increase when James got a comm come through to his quarters.

"Lieutenant Commander Diamond, this is Nurse Zevon," Dak said, causing James to jump up from the floor.

"What's up nurse? Is the Commander ok?"

"Yeah, I just thought I'd let you know that he's just woken up"

"We're on our way Nurse. Mitchell out" Logan spoke up this time, jumping up from the floor as well, as he put his bottle onto the table and made his way out of the room.

It was safe to say that everyone was on the Doctor's tail as he made his way to the sickbay, and when they arrived, they were greeted with the sight of Kendall sitting up in the bed, with a pad in his hand.

"Welcome back to the land of the conscious Commander, although I see you're already checking up on our progress. Don't trust me with your ship?" James teased, causing Kendall to let out a weak chuckle as he put the pad down onto the table beside him.

"I trust you just fine, it's the Wreisk I don't trust" Kendall replied, causing James to shrug as he pulled up a chair to sit next to Kendall, everyone else doing the same, while Logan began to get Kendall's test results.

"Well, then you'll be pleased to hear that we haven't been attacked all week" James replied, causing Kendall to flash him a small smile.

"I saw that. Now, I have to ask, what are you all doing here?" the blond asked, glancing around to see everyone chilling out around him.

"We were just having a relaxing evening in the Chief's quarters" Lucy replied, causing Kendall to let out a little cough as he tried to mock offence.

"And I wasn't invited. That's not very nice of you chief"

"You'll be invited next time, I promise. This time, you were a little preoccupied" James replied, causing Kendall to let out a little chuckle.

"So, what did I miss?" the blond asked, causing everyone to glance around at each other, with small smiles on their faces.

"Well, I guess I better go first" James spoke up, clearing his throat as everyone rolled their eyes, ready to hear the story for a second time. "I suppose it all started when I was younger…"

* * *

 **So there we have it! Jo, Logan and Lucy all shared their stories, with this chapter being a little bit heavier than the last, especially with Logan's story bless him! Still, I hope you all enjoyed, and I promise, we will get Kendall's full story at some point!**

 **I want to give a massive thank you to Winterschild11 Guest, and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing the last chapter, and I'm so glad that you liked it! I thought it was about time that we finally learnt about the crew, especially since we're about 60,000 words in by this point. God, that's longer than some of the earlier stories that I have uploaded!**

 **Anyway, happy Friday, I hope you're all having a great week, and now I can say that I will see you on Monday for the next chapter of Blizzard! But until then,**

 **TTFN 😃🚀**


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